Thursday, June 30, 2016
Good Day?
Dimmer Beach: There is something people say that I find amusing: “Have a good day.”
A harmless statement in and of itself, but what does it really mean to have a good day?
I think most days are average days. That’s why average is a word. It means the most common, the middle ground, where you are normally at.
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5 comments:
I agree with the article having a "good day" is a relative term it depends on a lot of things like an "average day" which is also relative. Everyone's days are different everyone does different things. Like talked about at the end of the article about the concert, some people save up all there money for this one concert some work 9-5 jobs everyday to be able to afford it some just can afford it by not working at all. You give every concert your best because you don't know how people got the money to be here. They may have sacrificed necessities for the opportunity to be able to afford the show and then you give a crappy show. Its not right some people can blow off the ticket money and don't care. But for some people that may be all they had they choose to see you over other bands.
I don't think it's important to over analyze this statement because 99.99% of the time when the question "did you have a good day?" is asked it is not an actual inquiry, it is simply a formality. While it is true that our average days can pale in comparison to the average day of others, or rise far above the best days of some, it truly doesn't matter. This formality is not an invite to introspect and ponder your life in comparison to others, it is merely an established custom that had lost meaning long ago. As a high school student, my parents are insistent on discovering the quality of my day, and for 5 years the answer has always been "fine". This is not because my day has been consistently the same quality for 5 years, it is purely because I choose to honor the long-held tradition that is this formality.
My issue with “have a good day” is not so much the phrase itself, but rather with the motivation behind it. While I am sure that some people genuinely wish that you day go smoothly, I find it hard to believe that many of the people who say it care at all how your day ends up. It is said as a courtesy, but why? Because of all the “have a good day” broken records there are, the phrase holds little value anymore. We need to start coming up with things to say when we genuinely hope someone’s day goes well. I am not too concerned with how my definition of a good day differs from the next person’s, because just like how we don’t need to know someone’s symptoms to hope that they recover soon, we don’t need to know what their “good day” looks like. Perhaps we should change the phrase to “Have a good day, whatever that might mean for you”, or simply “Have a day.”
I don't think the whole thing about the phrase "have a good day" is that important. People say things like "love you" or "how are you" all the time, and is it said with complete and genuine honesty or interest each time? No, but who cares? I find the argument about suffering but having a good job more interesting. I've experienced really difficult days in theatre, but even on those days I still came back the next day and for the next day. When I explain my schedule and duties to family or non-theatre friends, they seem horrified and they ask me why I do it, but the truth is I don't know what I would do with my time if I didn't do it. I know people who don't do any extra curriculars and just do homework after school. They have a lot more free time than me, but it's like the desk job - I don't think I would ever be able to do it. I think at the end of the day, if you really like doing something, you can find a way to make long nights fun. All the obstacles in your way just make you more determined to work past them so you can look back and brag about your accomplishments. I've definitely had that experience of being over it all, and on the last show I worked on, I said "I quit" jokingly almost every day, but when I was really upset, I thought about not doing it, and I immediately got over my frustrations because I knew I really wouldn't decide to do something else.
I think good is a relative term. Good compared to what? Good in compared to getting a flat tire if that is good? Good in compared to getting a new car? The term good is relative to what you compare it to; it’s the same with the term bad. That being said everyone can pinpoint what’s a good day and a bad day for them and we generally use what we think an average day is as a comparison point. A good day for someone in theater is a day where something goes right, it can be the littlest thing, but when something goes right it’s great. One of the goodest days (yes I know that’s not a word but I’m using it anyways) for me was when I was stage managing a show and it was tech week and we just could not get this one transition down and we kept running it over and over but we couldn’t get it to fit in the time frame the director wanted, but then we finally got it done in the right time frame it was an amazing feeling. That is a good day. But, for me just being in the theater is a good day. Yes certain parts of the day in the theater may be crappy, but overall when you are surrounded by what you love and people who also love what you love, it’s a good day. A day spent in another job, now that, would be considered a bad day.
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