Who Wants to Know?

Who Wants to Know
     - by Berton Braley

When people ask "How are you?"
  It's just a salutation,
And common sense should bar you
  From lengthy explanation.

It's not the kind of query
  Requesting diagnosis
Of each and every dreary
  Reaction and neurosis.

It doesn't mean devising
  An answer to the question,
In which you're itemizing
  What's wrong with your digestion.

If operations scar you,
  Don't analyze and spell 'em,
And when folks ask "How are you?"
  For heaven's sake don't tell 'em!
-----

These words of wisdom are a reminder to myself...  I had friends I hadn't seen in a long time stop by the house, unannounced, recently.  I had unusually loose lips (for me) that evening, and my response to their asking how I had been was far too long.  Now that I'm not at the office to have that question ask of me many times daily, I'm a bit out of practice with my quick and ready response:  "I am better than I would be if I wasn't as good as I am!"  Doggone frontal lobe deterioration!  I'm losing my grip on long-held inhibitions during face-to-face conversation.  Still an introvert...but evidently, that's only a part of who I am.