How are you?

Today I am going to put up 3 posts instead of just one. I was walking to our cafeteria here at work for lunch today with some co-workers, and we were walking in back of a guy who passed by some people that he knew. The guy said to the people he knew, "Hi, how are you?" and they simply answered back, "good! how are you". The guy answered back with a "good"and they both continued to walk their separate ways. I thought to myself, when someone is asked how they are, how many people out there are not okay and then proceed to tell the person who asked. If the person being asked is doing horribly, are they supposed to say, "jeez, I'm really not doing well at all... in fact, I'm really bad". Usually in passing, it's just a common courtesy to ask someone how they are. Most people say they are good, or fine and they keep on walking. But I wonder how many people there are out there who actually say that they aren't doing well. I wonder if the person who asked in the first place will go one step further and ask why they aren't doing so well. That person obviously wants to talk about their problem, and because the other person asked, their "passing by' has now turned into a therapy session.

So, how are you?