Sincerity

The University Christian Union, UCU, has a meeting each Monday night of the school year. Maybe I should back up and tell you what the UCU is, but that is irrelevant, so in the name of brevity, I will simply say it is a bunch of college students, guys and girls, living in separate, adjacent houses. Last Monday during the meeting, we were talking about “Thoughts for Young Men” – JC Ryle. One of the guys, Michael, mentioned a cultural difference between Americans and Chinese. He said that if you ask someone from China how they are doing, the likely response will be a pause while they truly consider it, then a thoughtful answer.

In America, you ask someone how they are doing as a matter of courtesy, a salutation as it were, and hope they don’t respond with the truth. That is harsh; I do not mean to denigrate my culture, but there are some curious aspects to this. But I wonder, what are the greetings of other cultures? I mean, what do they mean? Bok is common in Croatia. Tcush is used in Bavaria, Southern Germany, Ciao in Italy, Cheers in England, Bonjour in France, Ahnyoung in Korea, Conichiwa in Japan, Oi in Portugal to name a few. And after looking at this list I realize that they aren’t exactly the phrases I am meaning to reference, but you get the point. Do the greetings of other cultures mimic ours in that they are questions of the person’s state of being or presence? Just curious.

“What’s uuuuuuuuup?”, as popularized by beer, “What’s going down?” “How you doin? (said deeply with an Italian accent)” “What’s new?” “How’s it hanging?” “What’s going on?” You have heard these today, probably more than once. What I am curious about is if our language has morphed into this form of greeting and if so why? What are the roots of it? Did we at one time find it necessary to ask these type of questions out of sincere interest in the other person and from then until now it has digressed into what it is today? I say digressed not to state my opinion, but for lack of vocabulary, I could very easily have said progressed. Let’s talk about progress... Next time.

Where has this train of thought come from? My own reflection on my own sincerity. I am trying to be more sincere. I feel like I water down or denigrate my own desires when I say things like those above. I can not possibly want to know how everyone I meet, the stranger in the elevator, is doing. I shouldn’t. So why do I ask them? In some way I see this as “crying wolf,” so if I can delineate my greetings and really say what I mean, then maybe I will mean what I say.

At times I know I fit right into the culture of insincerity and selfishness, a sad truth of who I am, but not who I want to be. If I ask you how you are doing, 1) you have my permission to answer honestly, 2) you have my permission to ask me if I really want to know and put me on the spot, 3) you can just say fine and I probably won’t know the difference.

It is tomorrow.

Jason