French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre wrote some of his most influential work including a theatrical drama about Christmas while he spent nine months as a prisoner of war in Stalag 12 in Nice and acknowledged, possibly for the first time, the full meaning and broader implications of that currently over abused cliche about the acceptance of now – “it is what it is.” (Geoff Johnson, Times Colonist Dec 24, 2020)

As Sartre wrote, “we are our choices.”

NB “It is what it is” was helpful to me when someone related this to my daughter after a difficult time.  She is intellectually challenged after brain damage from an IV intervention when she was a week old –  40 years ago.