The gift of "How are You?"

Being perhaps especially sensitive to affectation in those I come into contact with and intolerant of drivel laden small talk, I have for decades struggled with the question "How are you?" I just haven't known how to respond, and my (perhaps) incompetency has led me to different responses over the years, all surrounding the fixation that "How are you?" is a question with a prefabricated answer.
One is expected to answer with some variation of, "Fine."
For a while, I thought that the thing to do to keep myself and my communications pure was to tell the unfortunate and (in retrospect) well meaning people who chanced to indulge in this particular social nicety just exactly how I was doing. I was in fact seldom fine, pretty much at any given moment anything but fine, I actually never responded to that question with a fine for many years. I decided that I would give the people what they wanted-the truth.
I just didn't recognize what the truth was.
What I didn't recognize was the gift inherent in that statement. There is a reason that you are supposed to answer the question of "How are you?" with "Fine." It's more than a simple social commandment, it's a social commandment with benefits, if you will.
The question is not, "How are you in all areas of your life, how have you been in the recent past and the projected future?" The question is, "How are you, right now." In order for me to answer the question with absolute honesty, I must stop and evaluate how I am at the very moment that the question in asked. I must be mindful of my life in the present. When I do this, I discover that at any given moment, if I stop to check, I am not being shot at, starving to death, being hit by a piece of space garbage hurtling to the earth, falling over, or splitting my pants. So far, when I get asked that question, and I stop to give a thoughtful answer about how I am at the particular moment the question is asked, I'm actually doing fine.
Fine, thank you.