I had an “Aha!” moment today as I realized the true meaning behind this British greeting. Several times lately I’ve been greeted by a UK friend with, “You alright?” and I thought to myself, “I must be looking sad/bad/tired or something that would make them think something was wrong…” so I would respond with something like, “Oh! I’m okay…just a bit tired, I guess….” to try to explain my “down” appearance. But it came to me that this is just the typical greeting, like, “How do you do?” or “How are you?” and it doesn’t (necessarily) mean I’m looking a bit sickly and in need of solicitous comfort. Sometimes it does seem like a foreign language is being spoken all around me…
Making Life an Art 