I Hope That You’re Okay
“I hope that you’re okay …”
I’m chilling on my balcony, watching Upper Hill wind down for the night. What I love about my hood is its dual personality, by day it’s a bustling business centre, where captains of industry duel across boardroom tables, striking deals, like modern day knights, except that their lances are made of their company expense accounts and the size of their portfolios.
At night, Upper Hill to me is this serene thing, confident and coy at the same time, like a beautiful woman who still isn’t sure that she’s beautiful but knows that people love her all the same. Upper Hill is still innocent, for now anyway.
So I’m on the balcony listening to Babyface singing “I hope that you’re okay, I hope that we are all good?” – The gist of the song is that he’s breaking up with a chick whom he loves but feels their relationship is doomed. Rather than being melancholy, the song is actually quite upbeat. Goodbye hasn’t been drawn out in this song, in the way that lovers are wont to do, in this song its done so nonchalantly that I think it would’ve been so difficult to accept. It’s delivered in the same way that pizza is delivered to your crib, no matter how many times you order, you’re never really friends with the delivery guy. “I hope that you’re okay” when breaking up with someone is same as the delivery guy saying “I hope you enjoy your pizza” – Fact is, you’re just an address, he really doesn’t care whether you enjoy that pizza or not. He’s more concerned with clocking off at 9pm and heading home. I know too much about to life of pizza delivery it seems.
Anyway, what struck me about that line in the song was that it’s something that we hear every day and it means even less in real life. Everyday we ask each other if we are okay … “You good?” “How you doing?” “What happening?”, we ask each other this so many times and many times we don’t even really wait around or care about the answer. For real, when was the last time you asked someone “How are you doing?” and really meant it? Like for real real?
We are too busy to notice peoples pain, it’s like when someone loses a parent or something like that and posts about it on Facebook and 1000 people like the status update. What is there to like about that? We like it because it convenient and it is grief that is divorced from us. Then by reading the comments and subsequent funeral committee appeals you realise your FRIENDS Mom had suffered from cancer for 2 years and fought like a champion. The same friend you passed in the office and said “What’s up?” to but were too busy to really see the slump in their shoulder or the wistful gaze through the window before they left to visit Mom each evening at hospital before she passed away.
This person carried their burden alone and everyday when you saw them you said “I hope that you’re okay” and then ordered pizza for lunch.