things are what they are.

Simonette Boekel
Apr 17, 2018
3 min read

I'm sure I'm not alone when it comes to being stressed over instagram captions. I mean, as ridiculous as it may seem, I always struggle to think of something somewhat interesting to write. Now, stay with me here, I assure you this blog post is not just me complaining about instagram captions, but I thought it was a good place to start. This post is basically just me typing out the tangent my brain decided to go on after reading a particular quote. And this particular quote was stumbled upon whilst trying to find a good instagram caption, so this whole starting point makes perfect sense, right? So, I wanted to post some pictures of a rose, which I took on the day all the photos in this blog post were taken. (Scroll to image #5) Naturally, I thought a quote with the word 'rose' in it would be perfectly fitting. (creative, i know) Well, of course I couldn't just go the classic Shakespeare's 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet', so then I came across 'A rose is a rose is a rose' which was written by Gertrude Stein. So now my instagram caption was sorted, but then I got thinking, okay, what on earth does this quote actually mean?

Well, of course, like all good writing and art, this phrase is completely open to interpretation. However, upon further research (thankyou Wikipedia), I found that Stein actually didn't actually intend for the phrase to have a deep meaning, but instead used it to demonstrate the way in which a single word can evoke emotions and imagery that are associated with it. Nowadays it is interpreted as meaning 'things are what they are'. I found the comparison of this quote to Aristotle's law of identity particularly intriguing. His law states that 'each entity exists as something in particular and it has characteristics that are a part of what it is.' which makes sense. Of course this refers solely to physical things. But this got me thinking once again, does the same concept apply to everything else we experience? Our lives are far more complex than just a bunch of objects, and my first thought after reading 'things are what are they are' was definitely more about the situations we find ourselves in, rather than physical 'things' as such.

It's something I often think about. And I think it's definitely true to some extent. Things are what they are. Sometimes there is nothing you can do or say to change a situation or a feeling, and that's okay, because ultimately everything happens for a reason. Whether that be to teach you something, or show you something, or make you come to some sort of realisation. Everything has a purpose. Well, in my opinion anyway. I for one, can say that naturally, I tend to overanalyse things or situations. But I've come to realise, that 'things are what they are'. The way someone treats you is how they feel about you and sometimes you just need to let things be. Because 'a rose is a rose is a rose' and no matter how much thinking or guessing you do, things are almost always exactly as they seem.

Anyway, I'm going to stop there, before we go too far into the depths of my brain. I hope you have enjoyed this post, even if it was just for the photos.

Until next time, Sim