“How Are You?” How to Honestly Answer your Colleagues

When I was a child growing up in South Africa, Christmas meant summer holidays, a big glorious lunch feast at grandpa’s house, and piles of presents, many of which read: “Dear Taryn, Merry Christmas! Love Father Christmas.” Jesus? Well, he was the reason for the season, but in that “thanks for the excuse to indulge” kind of way. It was dashingly disappointing to 8-year-old me when my classmate announced that Santa was not real. Christmas lost its shine. But Jesus didn’t. I grew to a deeper sense of what the gift of his birth meant and by the time I was in…