IT IS WHAT IT IS

Now I have to go in hiding from the Grammar Police.  Horrible title, but I will try to make it work.

I am a reality kind of guy.  I try to deal with things as they are, not as I wish them to be.  If I do not like the way it is, I may try to change it…or accept it as it is.  Works for me…may not work for you.

My own personal happiness is woven into this IT IS WHAT IT IS concept.  I accept reality or try to change it or agree with myself that it can not be changed (like something from the past) and then go on with my life. My basic centering in my life is that I intend to BE HAPPY…and, for me, I can only do that if I understand and embrace this concept of IT IS WHAT IT IS.  Sometimes that sends me into the fight to see if I can change the current reality.  Sometimes that causes me to say…”I don’t really like the current reality, but I am going to accept it for now as I probably can not change it without it taking over the rest of my life and I do not really want to blow a head gasket being pissed off about it.”  Is that “giving up”…yup.  But I choose what I want to give up on and what I want to fight…and I am happy with my choice.  By the way…YOU do not get to choose that for me…that is up to me.  I say that because I notice so many celebrities (many of whom became enlightened during one of their many rehabs stays) or my friends and neighbors EXPECT me to join them in being pissed off 24/7 at local, state, national and international politics.  Well, I AM NOT.. and they can not drag me into their complaints.  I figured out a long time ago that about half of the world feels differently than I do about politics and many other things…and I value those people as people…friends and neighbors…for our shared experiences and our lives with each other…not for which candidate they love or hate.   My feeling about embracing DIVERSITY is that I value all people…even those who THINK differently than I do about a political issue.  And I do not value anyone who seeks to change my mind or existence through violence or terrorism…I hate bullies in every form.

The IT IS WHAT IT IS thing has simpler meaning as well.  Linda and I had dinner with a friend recently at their BEAUTIFUL home.  For the first time since we moved to Hawaii, we both came home and said “Man…I would really love to have a house like their house.”  Well…that is not going to happen.  We are through moving and could not even remotely afford their home.  So we will have to embrace our IT IS WHAT IT IS philosophy and move on with our lives.  Here is another horrible grammar mistake…WE GOT WHAT WE GOT.  We did…and we got plenty and there will always be people with more…that is just the way it works.  Good for them and good for us.  We can all be happy with what we have. I am not just happy with what I have…I am forever thankful for it.

Linda and I were just in Tanzania and in the area where the Maasai live.  They live in huts.  They herd cattle.  It is dry and dusty there.  Go out a little ways and they have to deal with wild life that can attack their cattle or them.  Looked like a pretty harsh way to live.  However, the Maasai I met seemed pretty darn happy with their lives.  If they visited my wealthy friends house they might have felt kind of like Linda and I did for a while…but IT IS WHAT IT IS.  They seem to have a lot of freedom…a lot of community and family around them.  They live in an amazing country.  They probably do not have a lot of debt to worry about.  They do not have to go work for some jerk at 8am every morning.  Who is running what in the USA did not seem to be anything that they spent any time worrying about.  IT IS WHAT IT IS…and they are seemed happy despite circumstances that would seem pretty daunting to you and I.  And to be fair…I am speaking in a generality about people I do not know in any depth…so I could be absolutely wrong in my conclusion.  But if I am…they are pretty good at fooling me.

So…life goes on.  It is what it is…and I am fine with that being the case.

Aloha.