It’s a standard answer to a standard question.
“How you doing?”
“Can’t complain.”
Really?
You can’t complain? Sure you can. And that’s what makes the response so remarkable. You could complain but you’re not; moreover you’re deliberately consciously choosing not to.
“My life might not be perfect right now” you’re saying in effect “but even so I can’t find anything to complain about.” Impressive. Even more impressive when we consider just how many people no matter how well things are going definitely can and do complain i.e. “to express dissatisfaction pain uneasiness censure resentment or grief; to find fault.”
But our lives — when we look through eyes of emunah — are always perfect. We may not be up to feeling that way all the time because feeling that way all the time takes a lot of serious intensive grueling personal work. But whether or not we’re currently feeling that way the classic time-tested Jewish response to “How you doing?” is “Baruch Hashem.” Life may not seem perfect. It may not feel perfect. But “Baruch Hashem” says that I know that Hashem knows exactly what He’s doing and so it is perfect even if right now I’m not there.
Create a free account to keep reading.
