Reader question:
Please explain “fact of life” in this sentence: Sex discrimination like evil is a fact of life.
My comments:
Sex discrimination, by the way, refers to how women are prejudiced against in, for example, employment.
Sometimes, women are not given a job due to the very fact that they’re women. Even when they are given the same jobs they’re sometimes paid less than their male counterparts.
This is a fact of life, i.e. something that exists, something we can’t change but have to acknowledge, accept or tolerate.
Like evil, evil as in good and evil.
Evil, such as bad deeds and crime, exists just as charity and good deeds exist.
In our example, sex discrimination is compared to evil and it’s something to be recognized like bad weather.
Yes, bad weather is a fact of life. It’s a fact. Rainy days and gloomy days exist. No matter how much you prefer sunny days, you must learn to endure rainy days and cold days, as well as windy days – not to mention stormy days of torrential rain and atmospheric tumult.
That’s “fact of life” as an idiom, referring to some unpleasant but unavoidable aspects of life or existence.
Let me give you some examples.
Aside from bad weather, traffic accidents are a fact of life. The fact that you follow traffic rules strictly doesn’t prevent traffic accidents from happening. So, don’t be naïve. Keep paying extra attention to the road as well as to fellow travelers whenever you’re on the road, especially in the city.
Aging, for another example, is a fact of life.
Young people don’t seem to know that, of course. Or they just don’t seem to care. Either way, never mind, they’ll catch up.
Or, put another way, life with catch up with them.
All in good time.
Anyways, aging is a process that’s unavoidable. So acknowledge it and deal with it.
Deal with it, that is, as best as you can.
All right, here are recent media examples of “fact of life”, something that’s unpleasant but unavoidable:
1. In general, in the immediate aftermath of a deadly school shooting, Republican officials have spent recent years sticking to a familiar playbook. They offer “thoughts and prayers”; say something along the lines of, “This isn’t the time to talk about politics”; and roll out stale culture-war ideas such as regulating video games and pushing state-endorsed religion in public schools.
In time, the horror fades from front pages, and GOP policymakers simply wait for the next deadly school shooting, at which point the cycle starts anew.
But Republican politics in the Trump era has been a little different.
It was earlier this year, for example, when Donald Trump responded to a school shooting in Iowa by urging supporters to “move forward,” adding his belief that people “have to get over it.”
The former president’s comments came to mind after seeing new and related remarks from his 2024 running mate. The Associated Press reported:
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance said Thursday that he lamented that school shootings are a “fact of life” and argued the U.S. needs to harden security to prevent more carnage like the shooting this week that left four dead in Georgia.
To be sure, the Ohio senator did not express indifference to the bloodshed. At a campaign rally in Phoenix, Vance described the Apalachee High School shooting as “awful,” adding, “No parent should have to deal with this. No child should have to deal with this. And yes, after holding these folks up in prayer and giving them our sympathies, because that’s what people deserve in a time of tragedy, then we have to think about how to make this less common.”
The GOP’s vice presidential nominee specifically suggested increased school security as a possible solution, though this approach has fallen far short elsewhere.
But Vance nevertheless concluded, “I don’t like that this is a fact of life.”
I realize that everyone deals with routine frustrations in their day-to-day lives. When you’re all set to walk your dog, and it suddenly starts pouring rain, that’s exasperating, but you realize that rainstorms are just a fact of life.
Heavily armed children committing mass murder in schools, however, is not “a fact of life.” It’s a societal scourge that’s unique to the United States – the consequence of a society awash in guns thanks to weak laws that Republican politicians such as Trump and Vance refuse to reform.
In a statement issued soon after Vance’s public comments, the Harris/Walz campaign team issued a written statement that read, “Yesterday, Vice President Harris said ‘it doesn’t have to be this way’ in response to another senseless school shooting. Donald Trump and JD Vance think school shootings are a ‘fact of life’ and ‘we have to get over it.’
“Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know we can take action to keep our children safe and keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Donald Trump and JD Vance will choose the NRA and gun lobby over our children. That is the choice in this election.”
- JD Vance faces pushback over ‘fact of life’ school shootings remark, by Steve Benen, MSNBC.com, September 6, 2024.
2. During an appearance on Sky News, Health Secretary Wes Streeting was asked why the UK Government wouldn’t consider re-joining the single market in order to remove obstacles to trade with neighbouring countries in the EU.
“There’s one market over here, there’s one market over here,” said Sky News presenter Sophy Ridge.
“There’s one way to ensure smoother trade and simpler processes. Maybe having one market, I’m struggling to think of the word, can you help me?”
Streeting replied: “Yeah, I know and I campaigned passionately to remain in the European Union but a referendum and two subsequent General Elections settled that question.”
Ridge then pressed Streeting on why there couldn’t be a debate about re-joining the single market “without this government trying to shut it down”.
She added that the UK Government’s own green paper detailing the country’s industrial strategy showed that investment into the UK has reduced by 11% as a result of Brexit.
The Health Secretary proceeded to say that lower economic growth as a result of Brexit was a “fact of life” people in the UK would just have to deal with.
“People have moved on, the country has moved on, the EU has moved on,” he said.
“Let me tell you, not just here but in Brussels, there is no appetite to relitigate those arguments, to re-open things that have been settled.
“It’s about a new friendship.”
“Even if it damages growth?”, asked Ridge.
Streeting continued: “There’s no doubt that what we warned about in advance of the referendum in terms of the impact on economic growth has come to pass.
“That’s a fact of life we have to deal with.
“I think the sweet spot is working as closely with the European Union where we can but also showing the agility to work with and through partners in other markets as well.”
- Wes Streeting: Lower economic growth due to Brexit a ‘fact of life’, TheNational.Scot, October 15, 2024.
3. In Minnesota, snowfall is a fact of life, even in March and April. But shoveling snow puts a higher workload on some peoples’ hearts.
Lifting a lot of heavy snow is more strenuous than running on a treadmill, but there are things you can do before and during shoveling to move your snow safely.
In the Prospect Park neighborhood of Minneapolis, Phil Naumann and wife Liz Ward are shoveling out.
“My brother would call this ‘heart attack snow,’” Ward said.
Because of that, they make sure to takes breaks.
“You’re always thinking about, you know, the ticker,” Naumann said.
A Canadian study found snowfall of 7 inches or more increased men’s risk of heart attack by 16%.
Dr. Demetris Yannopoulos, a cardiologist at M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center, says shoveling is an intense workout which, along with the cold, raises blood pressure and puts added stress on the heart.
“This morning we had two cardiac arrests that we responded to, and we kind of expect it when that happens,” Yannopoulos said.
He believes many cardiac episodes during shoveling come from ignoring shortness of breath or chest pain.
“They basically have symptoms, but because of what they’re doing they think it’s normal or it’s caused by the cold air going in your lungs,” he said.
If you have risk factors – such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes – be extra cautious. If clearing snow feels too hard, try finding someone to do it for you.
- Before reaching for your snow shovel, know the health risks, CBSNews.com, March 5, 2025.
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About the author:
Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.
（作者：张欣）
