How many times do you say it? How many times do you hear it?
It’s about as simple as an expression can be and yet it really, when you think about it, has more depth than the Grand Canyon.
We minimize the significance of, ‘it is what it is’ and I think it’s unfair. It deserves more than that.
These 5 words can stop a diesel train at high speed. It can add closure to the best and worst case scenarios in a split second. It can sum up a high level corporate meeting in a flash. It can end an argument between a husband and a wife in an instant. In a heartbeat, you can sum up pretty much anything and do it with meaning.
We toss ‘is what it is’ around like a Frisbee. We take it for granted. We disrespect it. We dilute its usage. We don’t allow it to breathe. It’s entitled to a long-winded, full inhale and exhale. It has earned that. There is so much weight in these 5 words.
Have a good clean debate with someone, and as often is the case, it ends with a stalemate. However it concludes with, ‘it is what it is’.
And that ‘s completely acceptable. Somehow that provides both sides with some sense of satisfaction. No one wins and no one looses.
It’s the same as saying, I don’t care or screw it just as much as it is saying, it’s OK with me – that’s cool. It’s sensible and practical. It really offers the end to some beginning. We accept ‘it’ and we deal with ‘it’. We can comfortably move on.
And, we can do this because, ‘it is what it is’.