So the question someone sent me today was, “How are you?” And normally my fun standard answer would have been, “Fantastic…and getting better.” I wish I could say I came up with that, but I’ve borrowed it from the late great Zig Ziglar.

But today was different. I read the question too quick, I’ve had too much coffee, not enough sleep, whatever. Today the question hit me as “WHO are YOU?”

I mean, How is the physical me? How is the spiritual me? How is the business me? How is myself? My family? My community? Because these are also me. How is my dog? My mother? My siblings? My friends? My business partners? My mailman? My wife? My wife’s family? Because these too are also me. How are my community leaders? My community trouble makers? My power company, gas company, water company? How are my local farmers? Because these too are me.

“How are you?” became my existential crisis of the morning.

We so often only think about the oneness that is ourselves. I was earlier reading an online post arguing that if you don’t have kids, you shouldn’t contribute to school taxes. But don’t we all benefit from our community being educated? Don’t we want better engineers, doctors, nurses, inventors, farmers, mechanics, writers, creators? Aren’t we also the receiver of the benefits of creating new Entrepreneurs? Scientists? Poets? Artists? Architects?