random thought

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It bothers me when someone says, "It is what it is." What does that even mean?

It means that the situation is what it is (ie BAD) and there aint nuthin you can do about it.

My sister used the expression when talking to mom about some trivial thing when we visited mom at the assited living home when Mom was declining from an illness.

So I associated it with family stress,and family crises, and also hated the expressed.

However...

Shortly after that visit to Mom I saw Fred Arminson on Saturday Night Live playing Osama Bin Ladin making a "last will testament" video for his heirs. In the sketch he stands (beard, desert garb and all) and is forced to explain to his relatives how there is virtually nothing left of the fortune (after he squandered it all on terrorism). And with arms outstretched and with sad eyes he says " I know its not much. But it is what it is."

Maybe its the idea that Bin Ladin would use the same American yuppie expression that my sister would use, or maybe its the idea that a guy we all love to hate has worse family stress than I do, but whatever ...the line was enough to make me laugh my ass off. It was therapeutic.

And it still think of that sketch and inwardly chuckle every time I hear the expression now!