Sunday, January 10, 2010

The Meaning of Resolution

"This year, I'm making a resolution to _______."

That is how we typically hear or see the term "resolution" used these days. Except of course when Congress uses it - in which case see synonyms: mess, pork, tax, disaster. But in all seriousness, in the spirit of mindfulness I decided to look up the other various meanings of the word. Ponder my findings from dictionary.com :

res⋅o⋅lution

–noun
1. a formal expression of opinion or intention made, usually after voting, by a formal organization, a legislature, a club, or other group. Compare concurrent resolution, joint resolution.
2. a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.
3. the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.
4. the mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute; firmness of purpose.
5. the act or process of resolving or separating into constituent or elementary parts.
6. the resulting state.
7. Optics. the act, process, or capability of distinguishing between two separate but adjacent objects or sources of light or between two nearly equal wavelengths. Compare resolving power.
8. a solution, accommodation, or settling of a problem, controversy, etc.
9. Music.
a. the progression of a voice part or of the harmony as a whole from a dissonance to a consonance.
b. the tone or chord to which a dissonance is resolved.
10. reduction to a simpler form; conversion.
11. Medicine/Medical. the reduction or disappearance of a swelling or inflammation without suppuration.
12. the degree of sharpness of a computer-generated image as measured by the number of dots per linear inch in a hard-copy printout or the number of pixels across and down on a display screen.

Ironically it seems I've actually made a "resolution" by not only deciding to break the year into parts of a journey, but also by the fact that no matter what, there will be a result.

At least I'm learning.

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