The Pastor of a church I once visited spoke on this same topic and ended by exhorting his congregation to make it an active call instead of a passive wish. Rather than merely wishing someone to have a nice day, encourage them to make it a nice day--both for themselves and for others!.

Oh, just have some fun!

When greeted with the salutation "how are you" etc. I have taken to generating "I am, and how are you?" After a few repetitions over time, I get "I am" back, which for some reason all works better for me.

Now, last week I was asked by my supermarket cashier "How are you" and I replied truthfully, "terrible". But then I told her I was going to take two minutes out of my terrible day to enjoy her unusual beauty, and she loved that.

Otherwise, I'm down to "I am".

At least we seem to be over the "have a nice day" craze.

Them: "Have a nice day."
Me: "Thank you, but I have other plans."

Edward Cole: Somewhere, some lucky guy's having a heart attack. from the movie "The Bucketlist".
I enjoyed reading about your great day.
I like your blog. I come here to hear myself laugh out loud (at things like that deal about our stuff from China and what one might wonder when looking at the pieces). Your work is actually re-energizing my patriotic indignation which had short circuited to flat line in "give-up" mode. And ... I enjoy "Love, Truth, & Beauty" and the intro to Jacques Maritain. (Are you aware of the on-line bulletin board at pinterest.com? I think it would be of at least passing interest to you ... images only.) All good, but mostly I enjoy your great stories of a life lived as a tale which is told.
I think you rock ... and I smile to see this great day, and I wonder, could it be clammier inside an occupied clam shell or would that be just soupy.

DeAnn

Nice is a bland word that deserves to be ignored.

Great days happen, but, even better in my book, are solidly good days. That kind that don't feature unexpected, horrible events, that do flow along as planned and leave you to fall asleep confident that all is basically well in your small corner of the world.

I'm glad you're alive, Gerard. I would have missed you.

I'm no Pollyanna either, but I've long thought that allowing a couple of crappy moments to ruin an entire day was a good way to miss out on all the really good moments that same day most likely contains. Life is overflowing with sweetness; why allow a moment of bitterness to mask it?

DeAnn - re. the clam, lol.

Around here, the clerks usually ask, "How are you?" I try to remember, when replying, to ask how they are, too. Easier to see the person behind the register that way.

If you're above ground, it's ALL great!

I find conversation in the most mundane of places

The other night, while waiting for my take-out order at a Chinese restaurant, I struck up a conversation with two elderly black women who didn't say, "How are you?" but inquired about my specific state of health, which hasn't been too good. They expressed a touching concern for my ongoing battles with bronchitis, and from there we talked about the numbers of people we would be cooking for on Thanksgiving, and whether or not southern cooking is better than Pennsylvania Dutch...we all agreed that it is. Being able to share the splendors of collard greens with folks who understand those splendors is always a good way to spend time waiting for the Chinese version of collard greens.

I seldom ask "How are you?" without wanting to know more than that. It's almost like using pick up lines, but without the possibility of a one night stand. Strangers feel less strange to each other after they spend a few moments talking about the common things of life.

I do tech support, so we do need to have some sort of close. I usually like to say "Have a good day!" because telling someone to have a great day seems a bit overblown. But a good day, now I think most folks can come up with a way to make that happen.

This is going to sound dumb, Sir - but don't ever forget It.

It's been twenty or so years since I found out I was mortal the 'hard way' in the Persian Gulf. It was an awesome (in the original sense of the word) experience. Since then, I've sort-of locked It away and made peace with the after effects.

It's good to be reminded of It once in a while.

Gerard, I'm very glad to see you are doing well and let the big wake-up call get its point across to you.

I'd highly recommend you check out the radio talk show host Dennis Prager's weekly Happiness Hour (it's really 35 minutes once commercials are subtracted). He's very convincing on the requirement that people make them self happy, or choose to be/act happy, for their own benefit and the benefit of those around them. DP makes the point we alter our "natural" smell and mouth odor, we should also alter our "natural" bad mood. DP is a behaviorist and recognizes that acting happy will likely makes us more happy. He's not suggesting we ignore pain/problems but we deal with them and we choose to be happy while we do it.

I've been a DP podcast subscriber for about 5 years and he has more wisdom than any other 5 radio hosts I can name. DP puts a lot of practical common sense, a lot of practical Jewish Torah/rabbi wisdom, and his own wisdom from very careful observation in each show. He has a few verbal ticks that sometimes make me want to hit somebody with a bat, but that's my unwarranted reaction due to constant time pressures and not especially a flaw in DP.

You can subscribe to DP's Pragertopia by month or year. While you are subscribed you can comb through recent archives. Happiness Hour is the 2nd hour on Fridays. He also has dedicated Ultimate Issues Hour and Male/Female Hour. The podcasts are commercial free (35 minutes) and most are very valuable. Oh, and he's much lower key than other hosts. He's not dull, he's just not angry and yelling as often as others.

A Christian teacher I used to know would occasionally say,"What gets your attention gets you."

Ah, thank you. We were going to forget to watch this...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066344/

I'll put it on the agenda for Black Friday. It's a family tradition, doesn't seem like the Christmas season if we haven't slid it in the Blu-Ray at least once.

If you've not caught this one before, I think you'd realize some special pleasure from seeing it now. Going by your comments.

James Wilson, you stole my thunder.

When asked how I am, I normally respond that being only half the philospher as that French guy, Descartes, that I simply AM. And of course I tend to follow that up with the quote from my hero "I Yam What I Yam, and That's All That I Yam!"

Gerald, I'm glad that, like Lazarus, you're returned from the dead. This would be a much drabber world if you could no longer say "I Am..."

Take care and may your Muse continue to whisper in your ear.

Herb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vmknnXoOJk

Every day vertical and above ground is beyond expectation. When you have been close to losing either or both of the two adjectives, you will understand. It is in our nature to complain, if only to express something more than placidly accepting those things we might want to change, so don't feel guilty about it.
My response to 'have a nice day' is "thank you, and you too..."

BTW, it is my understanding that you should be on the "If it tastes good, spit it out." diet. What's with the donut???

tom

p.s. Glad you're still above ground and vertical. You have a great skill at weaving word pictures.

ACTUALLY for a number of reasons doughnuts do not taste good and I do spit them out and rarely finish them. Autodiet I guess.

If you keep this up, we are going to start having a positive thoughts. At mid-life, I don't think I can muster positive thoughts but I think I may have felt a tingle up my leg hearing you are coping so well. Personally, I actually prefer the cashiers who at least make the effort to fake it over the ones who don't bother either way but I may be biased since I normally fake it myself. Having said that, I LOVE that SC Governor Nikki Haley has a habit of saying "It's a great day in South Carolina!" I think she even requires state employees answer the phone with that. It is contageous. Perhaps she chose that "motto" in the same post-death spirit considering we citizens will need to remember our better days to get through to 2012. It's worth try anyway. As always, thanks for sharing your post-death epiphanies with us. It's an interesting perspective considering mid-life feels a lot like purgatory. haha

Of COURSE you're having a great day. You're in SEATTLE!

(I'm a former Seattleite, and still miss the place...)

Despite countless trips to America I still believe that the person asking about my day cares and so I sometimes reply at length...bang goes their day.

i have nice days in my life