We don’t think much about hello.
It slips out of our mouths a dozen times a day—barely noticed, often automatic. A word so common it might as well be air.
But what if it’s more than that?
What if hello is a threshold?
Not a throwaway formality, but a miniature act of courage. A ritual. A quiet declaration:
I see you. I acknowledge your existence. I’m willing to cross the distance between us.
In the first episode of Well, That’s a Deep Subject, I dive into this idea. We explore how hello—whether spoken aloud, offered as a handshake, a nod, or even just a glance—has always meant more than we realize.
👋 The Sacredness of Hello
In ancient cultures, greetings weren’t casual. They were laden with meaning.
To greet someone was to declare peace. To skip a greeting was, in some cases, an act of war. Even today, the people we greet—and the ones we don’t—reveal more about our values than we care to admit.
Think about it:
The boss gets a cheerful “good morning.”
The barista gets a brief nod.
The janitor? Maybe nothing.
Every hello is a choice.
Every silence is, too.
📱 The Digital Disintegration of Hello
We’ve traded presence for pings. Connection for content.
Sometimes we scroll through dozens of faces and never say a thing that means anything.
We send the thumbs-up emoji, double-tap a photo, or fire off a “hey” without ever really seeing the person on the other end. We’ve made “hello” efficient—but hollow.
But the human need remains:
To be seen.
To be acknowledged.
To be greeted—not by an app, but by another soul.
🌱 The First Word of Creation
At its deepest level, hello is sacred.
It echoes that first creative word in Genesis: Let there be light.
The first hello between Creator and creation.
It’s the first syllable of every friendship.
Every myth.
Every redemptive story.
And this podcast?
It’s my way of saying hello to you. One listener at a time.
So go ahead—say it out loud today.
To a stranger.
To a loved one.
To someone who thinks you’ve forgotten them.
Say hello.
You never know what kind of world might open up behind it.
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