{"id":2592,"date":"2013-08-15T11:29:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-15T11:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=2592"},"modified":"2026-01-15T17:24:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T17:24:30","slug":"to-be-or-not-to-be-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=2592","title":{"rendered":"To Be or Not To Be…."},"content":{"rendered":"

August 17 is national “is” day. Ironically, today I was looking for a blog topic and I keyed in the phrase “to be” in google. I was hoping to find something meaningful and, you know, “deep” as in “I think; therefore I am” or “I thought; therefore I was” – No, that was yesterday, so it should really be, “I will think; therefore I will be,” for Saturday – you know, the day we will all celebrate the “is” day!!<\/p>\n

The site Zany Holidays<\/a> describes “Is” day as follows:<\/p>\n

What is the meaning of is? You can’t even ask the question without using the <\/span>word<\/a>, so it’s pretty hard to define. It’s the third person singular form of the word “be,” which is also hard to define without going into existential mumbo jumbo. Spend today trying to define is in your words without using the word be. It’s actually sort of a challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Actually, I used to use the Zany Holidays site a lot until they weren’t anymore in 2011 and 2012. Well, it seems that they have done this future thing too and decided that they will be again in 2013 with 7 posts. Begs the questions, “Doth 7 posts an existence make?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
“is” day party – “be” there \ud83d\ude42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\nAnyway, as I was researching existence or the state of “being” on google – this might be the ultimate existential state, as in, “I found myself in a search engine” – I came across lots of grammar sites that gave you the complete break down of all the tense forms of the verb “to be.” Very intense!! It is, of course, an irregular verb – aren’t we all. Here is the most detailed of the sites:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/grammar.ccc.commnet.edu\/grammar\/to_be.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

I loved their description of the verb “to be” – <\/p>\n

The Greek sea god, Proteus, was (like the sea) capable of changing form in an
\ninstant. In order to get any decent information out of him, you had to grab him
\nand hold on tight while he went through his various forms \u2014 lion, wild boar,
\nsnake, tree, running stream \u2014 it wasn’t easy. The verb \u201cTo be\u201d is said to be the
\nmost protean<\/i> of the English language, constantly changing form, sometimes
\nwithout much of a discernible pattern. Considering that we use it so often, it
\nis really too bad that the verb \u201cTo be\u201d has to be the most irregular, slippery
\nverb in the language. <\/p>\n

\nCertainly I can’t finish a post on existence without the famous statement from George Berkeley – “To be is to be perceived.” So in on-line terms do you really exist if no one knows you are there? Sacr\u00e9 mot!! I knew that there was a reason for all this blogging – I write; therefore I am, in every imperfect, conditional and passive state there is \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Have a wonderful day!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 17 is national “is” day. Ironically, today I was looking for a blog topic and I keyed in the phrase “to be” in google. I was hoping to find something meaningful and, you know, “deep” as in “I think; therefore I am” or “I thought; therefore I was” – No, that was yesterday, so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reality","category-unicorns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2592"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2593,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2592\/revisions\/2593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}