Communicating with the Universal “I’m Good”
Pity the poor person who has to translate the ubiquitous phrase “I’m good” in the current vernacular. The phrase rivals “stuff” for frequency and variety in meaning.
A couple of nights ago I was out to dinner with friends, and I became fixated on the phrase as it was bandied back and forth across the table.
As soon as we were seated (we had no reservations and they had accommodated our group anyway in a high-traffic area rather than turn us away), the maître’d asked, “Is this table okay?”
“We’re good. Thanks so much,” our host for the evening assured him.
Three in our dinner party were new to the others, so we exchanged pleasantries. The usual what do you do for a living? Do you have family? How do you know Joe? That sort of thing. Then we dug into the details one by one….
“So, Frank, you mentioned you used to work at IBM. Did you like sales?”
“Well, I’m good at sales. I like giving presentations, meeting people, solving problems. But I have to believe in the product or the service. That’s what it comes down to. So yes, I like selling and I’m good at it. That’s why I’m coming out of retirement to dip my hand back into this new opportunity.”
“You mentioned living in Orlando back in the l990s. Did you know Pete Sanders?”
He did. We did the ‘what-a-small-world’ routine, and he summed up with, “Pete’s a good man.”
A few minutes later: “So have you seen Meryl Streep’s latest movie?”
“Yes, it’s good.”
A few moments later, the waiter came by to refill after-dinner drinks. He asked my husband, “Do you want more coffee?”
“No, I’m good,” he said.
As we were leaving the restaurant, the out-of-towners climbed into their rental car headed back to the hotel for the night and then to catch a very early morning flight the next day. Wanting to be helpful, I leaned toward their car window, “Since you said you didn’t have a GPS, do you know your way back to the airport?”
“Yes, we’re good. See you!”
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