It is what it seems to be OR it isn’t what it seems to be.
One of those seemingly diametric expressions of reality perception defines [and is the underlying fundamental truth of everything that ever was, is, or will be of] EVERY religion, philosophy, strategy, personality, catfish, con artist, politician, lobbyist, online persona, person in the mirror, and person YOU think that is.
That’s why I HATE the phrase, “It is what it is.”
Because YOU got you there. Ain’t nothing but your sweet, young, innocent, and satisfied [not “self-satisfied”, because some people think at birth you don’t immediately identify a separate Self until it is imprinted upon you by the next nearest living thing] self, hanging out and hanging on and taking it all in and processing it while you sleep. Plus all the decisions you made, every damned foolish you should have known better leapt before you looked choice (whether you think it was deliberate or not, because we all know deserve’s got nothing to do with) in your mad, lucky, never boring and always unpredictable life.
Shit, we all have SO much baggage. And the truth is, it doesn’t all come in on the first trip from the car. In fact, there’s some still in the trunk. And at your mama’s house. And in that storage unit you started paying for in your late teens. Maybe not Hannibal Lecter level stuff, but regardless of the physical space it takes up, it wastes much more area in your brain.
And whatever IT is, it ain’t that. Another reason I hate it is what it is. It’s not just a cop out, a way to shift the focus and blame away from what should have been you accepting your responsibility instead of abdicating it. Like “you can’t fight City Hall.” Completely and utterly self-defeating. Because if YOU can’t, who can? And if it’s just don’t or won’t, it’s a slow slippery decline to the ethical torpor of shouldn’t, wouldn’t, and couldn’t.
Not just that, though theoretically that should be enough.
It’s a lie.
That’s why I hate “it is what it is,” particularly the offhand, seriocomic, optimistically fatalist way most folks who fondle this expression tend to like it served.
So limiting. It is. It’s never, never, never, ever what you THINK it is. It doesn’t need your permission, imagination, authority, belief, faith, education, domination, subordination, inclination, dedication, participation OR perspiration.
That’s what it means to be. But being is only the beginning. The hard part comes next.
But it ain’t all that either. Because it’s not some Sartre-laced dichotomy between Being – and/or – Nothingness.
Everything is nothing. That is, everything is sacred – or nothing is. And there’s a lot of it out there.
Watch your step.
Like Johnny Winter quipped in the song Dallas, there’s so much shit going on around here you’re bound to step in some.
10 APR 2026
© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.