Sincerity & the art of faking it... | Annie Hoey
Blah blah blah, welcome back to UCC 2013. Happy Christmas, best of luck in the New Year, Happy Easter, Happy birthday, Happy Mother’s Day, Happy Father’s Day, have mad craic on Patrick’s Day, good luck in your exams, Happy Halloween, welcome back to UCC, etc., etc. I think that is every greeting done for the year? Great. No need to worry about it until 2014 so.
Ah no, I am not that horrid/bitter/cynical. Not really anyway. I am just a bit tired of all the ‘happy this’ and ‘merry that’. It is all a bit excessive really. On Christmas Day, I got messages and texts from people that I genuinely did not know. It is probably my own fault for being friends on Facebook with them but really? I mean who in their right mind sends merry this, that and the other messages to someone they don’t even know? Assuming they also sent messages to people they do know, that is an awful lot of time spent sending pointless messages.I find myself questioning what they want from me (for I am far too sceptical to simply assume that they are actually being genuinely nice). They must want something. Are they running in the next local election? None this year so that can’t be it. Are they opening a new shop and are gagging for my custom? Doubt it. Babysitting duties? I don’t associate with people who have children as they make me nervous (the children not the parents) so that can’t be it. WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?? I will probably never know. Perhaps they really were just being friendly so…All my crazy over-analysing aside, it still brings me back to the question of the sincerity of well wishes. I got lots of messages from people who I do indeed consider friends (I may have even sent one or two myself) and I have no problem with that. In fact, it is rather nice when someone takes the time to wish me well. But what I most like about someone taking the time to wish me well is when I know they are being genuine about it. I simply cannot abide insincerity. Just don’t bother!! I would rather a person said nothing than gave me a half-assed ‘good luck’ followed by a simpering simmer of a smile. Go away. Shoo. I don’t need your well wishes thank you very much. I am perfectly happy with my genuine sincere few.Be sure to note at this point that I am not referring to the more traditional Irish greetings. You know the ones where you pass a person on the street and you say “hi howareya, notabother greatseeya” as you move pass them with a jovial wave. I don’t mind those because both party actually knows that it is merely an Irish way of saying hello and how are you without actually ever having to stop and listen to the answer. No no, those greeting are fine. It is the other bizarre social media messages wishing me (and undoubtedly all eight hundred of their other friends) happy this that and the other, that is have an issue with.Perhaps I really am just turning into a bitter old hag. Maybe I ought to be pleased that people are taking the time out of their day to wish me well. But they are not really. They are sending a mass message of good will to either a) fan their own ego for doing ‘a nice deed for the day’ or b) are some crazy cook who has no actual friends and decided to bombard us all with messages on the off-chance that one of us cares enough to respond. Either one of the two I am not mad about.Perhaps this year I will work on being less cynical and a little bit more welcoming and nice to people. Perhaps I will look at these messages as a genuine offering of friendship and I might reply in kind. Perhaps I will not squint my eyes and look at someone sceptically when they wish me well and wonder what it is that they want form me. Maybe I will just accept people’s niceness without second-guessing them.Then again, hell may freeze over.