It Isn’t What It Is

Do we accept what we cannot change, or do we broaden our scope?

New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick took the podium in Gillette Stadium to face reporters before an upcoming game with the Buffalo Bills. He was asked if he expected the Bills to do anything differently. Coach said: “I think relative to Buffalo, they’re Buffalo.”

In other words, it is what it is.

Later, when asked if he was proud of what the team had been able to do in the post-Brady era, he said, “Whatever happened in the past, whatever it is, it is … Nothing we can do about it. We’re moving on.”

In other words, it is what it is.

The expression has been around for a while. In 1949, an article appeared in The Nebraska State Journal in which J.E. Lawrence used a phrase hitherto unknown in English journalism or literature. He was describing the difficulty faced during frontier-era life in rural Nebraska: “New land is harsh, and vigorous, and sturdy. It scorns evidence of weakness. There is nothing of sham or hypocrisy in...