We learn English from the dialogue: "How are you?" "I'm fine, thank you. And you?" I like this dialogue, although, many years ago, I didn't have the language skills to answer what felt like such a hard question. This works for greeting strangers, checking in on colleagues, and talking with friends — it's good for almost every situation. Since it works in so many situations, people can answer truthfully, joke, be polite, or not really answer at all. Two people can finish this small, insignificant exchange and yet come away with something easy and warm between them — a connection that takes almost no effort to build or maintain, something that might even be remembered, someday, with a smile. Like the time I looked at a stranger, and he just said, "Hi." That small word made me feel accepted — like I was allowed to be here, to exist, even just for that moment. When a person has no energy left, and carries scars, even this much can be enough not to give up. And it's so much better than hearing someone say they hate you, that you're terrible, that they wish you'd disappear. Yes, I think, for some people in my memory, it's better that we never went further than the greeting. Maybe it was just "Hi," or maybe it ended with an ordinary "How are you today?" — and that's enough to make me a little less afraid of the world.