It can be hard for me to answer ordinary, everyday questions with the expected responses. For example, when somebody asks, “How are you?” I invariably answer “Never better.”
This is often met with incredulity or amusement, or with a follow-up question of “What is the reason for that?” I then have to answer, “For no reason at all.”
I’m really not trying to be a wise guy. Nor am I trying artificially to cheerlead myself into a state of denial.
All I am doing when I make these replies is telling the truth. I will give the same answer every time, because I am not talking about my emotions, my physical health, or any of the circumstances through which I am moving.
Those are just circumstances. They are not my Being, which is what I hear you asking about when you say, “How ARE you?”
In Answers From Silence, I state that “Your true identity is Being.”
Being is unaffected by time, and also is therefore unaffected by cause (past) and effect (present and future). Being is that infinite constancy that is total fullness.
Nothing is better than that. That is why I have never been better than I am right now, at all times, for no particular reason.
The same mismatch arises when someone says something like, “How was your weekend?” or “How was your Thanksgiving break?” The item here is that I don’t think about the past.
But since “I don’t think about the past” sounds so strange as a response to that normal, everyday question, I say, “I’m sure that it was great.”
That is the truth also. It had to be great, because all moments are filled with total fullness. I don’t need to confirm that by checking my memory of a past event.
The best of all is when someone else answers my question, “How are you?” with “Never better.” I don’t want to be the only one experiencing life in total fullness. Please join me.
—J.C.