“It is what it is” was a favorite expression of a woman I once knew. If it was pouring rain the day she’d planned on weeding her flower beds, that phrase would be the first on her lips. If a friend canceled dinner plans because of an unexpected obligation, “It is what it is” popped out of her mouth.
That constant repetition mildly annoyed me. That she delivered this fatalistic pronouncement in a chirpy, cheerful tone was just as irritating. Well, she seemed to say, we can’t do anything about the rain or the canceled plans, so we might as well just accept it and move on.