How are you?

I've started to notice how impersonal a lot of conversations really are. When you see someone, both of you say "hi" (or howdy or hello...) and then inevitably, one person will ask "how are you?" The other person will reply with something like "Fine, thank you. How are you?" In which they will receive a reply of "good" or fine." Are we really doing well all of the time? Does the other person really want a real answer?
Like today, as I was running, I was saying "good morning!" to the people that I passed (I am a friendly runner, my friends) and one man, I am sure out of habit asked me how I was doing. I could have replied, "slightly winded and my left pinkie toe is kind of aching," but instead I said "great, how are you?"
Probably not a good idea to get into real life problems with perfect strangers, but maybe we need to be making sure that if we are asking those questions, we are really listening to the people answering and if we get asked by someone who cares about us, that we are giving honest answer. Its okay for everything not to be perfect all of the time : )

Happy 4th of July weekend!! I'm trying to wait to make my patriotic cupcakes until Sunday, but I might not make it that long...