“Water is wet.” I say it a lot. Anyone who’s worked with me has heard it. My wife is probably sick of hearing it. It came from a Bruce Lee quote, sort of:
Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.
Somewhere along the way, that turned into “water is wet” in my head. Not the same meaning. Adjacent. Lee is telling you how to move through the world. Be fluid. Find a way around or through. It’s advice. “Water is wet” isn’t advice. It’s telling you what the world is. The rock is there. The rain falls. You don’t have to do anything with that. You just have to see it.
Things have their shape. They are the way they are. There’s no point in getting angry at water for being wet. That’s simply what water is. Rain falls. You get wet. Call it stoic, call it zen. The label isn’t the point. The “is” is.
You get one life. You can spend it being upset about the things you can’t control, or you can accept things as they are and be happy.
Have someone at work who is a bit of an asshole? You can’t control that. You can control how you react. You can get upset. You can be bothered. You can let them ruin your day. Why? They’re going to be what they are. Water is wet. There’s no point fighting the existence of the rock. Move around it.
I don’t know how I got from Bruce Lee to “water is wet”. Doesn’t matter. Water is wet. It is what it is, and that’s all it is.
