Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

fine

“Fine” is such a loaded word.

On the surface, it’s fairly innocuous, synonymous with “okay,” “acceptable,” or “within established parameters.”

But so often it means exactly the opposite. Depending on the situation and tone of voice, “fine” can mean any of the following as well:

1. “I could give you a full and honest response to your question, but I doubt that’s what you wanted when you asked, in passing, how I’m doing this morning.”
2. “Something’s bugging me, but you’re the last person in the world I want to talk to about this.”
3. “Something’s truly bothering me, but I don’t want to dump my problems on you, so I’m just saying ‘fine.’ But I hope you notice that something’s not-right and push me to talk about it, because I really need to talk and know someone cares.”
4. “No, things are definitely not fine. But I’m not going to tell you what’s wrong because you should know already, and I think you’re a jackass for being so clueless that you had to ask in the first place.”