There are certain turns of phrase that chill my bones. Certain words that ball my hands up into fists, involuntarily. Certain concepts that plummet my heart to the depths of my bowels.
There are worse phrases than my least favorite, for certain. But that much hated phrase is this one: “It is what it is.”
My direct supervisor has that statement printed out on the wall of her office. In the context of her office, it feels like the official slogan of the Defeatist Attitude Society. Though I feel those words would be better rearranged likeso: Society of Attitudinal Defeat, just so they can be SAD for short.
I do not, for any moment in my life, believe that anything is just one thing. There are tons of perspectives, angles, agendas, and so on.
I think, ultimately, I view placing such limitations on things an exercise in futility, and I don’t subscribe to that newsletter, nor do I enjoy associating with people who do. I mean, dang, I spend way too much of my time wasting it, thinking my writing or words aren’t good enough to be published. And maybe they aren’t to one publisher, but would be to another. I have certainly read enough literary magazine submissions at this point to understand how it works.
That almost definitely isn’t all that I have to say about this subject, but I will save further rants on it for another time.