By Jerry Riley

This afternoon someone asked me a simple question, “How are you.” Maybe a meaningless question, but, it got me to thinking. I tend to over-think most things; this was no exception. I told her that, “on a scale of one to ten, about an eight.” 8.5 just sounded like a better title.
Sure, everything was good, well, better than good. I was having a good day – but, things can always be a little better, or a lot worse – and, what a revoltin’ development this is!
Think about yourself, your day. What number would you give your day? Can you ever have a ten? If you do, are you saying it’s as good as it gets?
What if it got better? Do you just pick an arbitrary number, outside of the already arbitrary 1-10 scale? Do you give yourself an 11 or maybe 15? Where does it stop?
Is my 8.5 the same as yours? I told someone I was “OK.” She said I looked “fine” to her. As the old saying goes, “are we always comparing apples with apples?” Everyone is different; yeah, I know, not as different as I am.
Is your good better than someone else’s good?
What about a one? You know, a day when it looks like things can’t get any worse; then they do. Perhaps we may need negative numbers?

Jerry Riley is an occasional commentator for the News Bulletin. He is a retired telecommunications supervisor.
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