As I often do with our topics, I check a definition of the word or a keyword in the phrase, if more than a single word, for an official dictionary definition. I find I do this more often these days after quite a few years in this group of exhausting my own personal ties I might have to a word or phrase. In my mind resolve relates intimately to resolution and lord knows I have made and continue to make many resolutions. Unfortunately, many of my resolutions go unresolved and so don’t make for very interesting or fulfilling stories.
Kudos though to whomever suggested this topic, resolve. The dictionary check provided a very rich source of synonyms both nouns and verbs. Let me share the list of nouns from my computer dictionary:
settle, sort out, solve, find a solution to, find an answer to, fix, work out, straighten out, deal with, put right, set right, put to rights, rectify, iron out, reconcile; answer, explain, fathom, unravel, disentangle, clarify, clear up, throw light on; sew up, hammer out, thrash out, patch up, crack, figure out.
The list of verbs was even longer. You would think that this rich and long list of synonymous words would provide lots of fodder for writing something and if I wasn’t such a lazy fuck these days, I am sure it would.
One thing I have resolved to do for more than a decade now is to stick with this group. The resilience of this Story Telling endeavor coupled with Phil Hoyle’s dedicated nurturing, dating back to 2010 at least, has resulted in one of the most rewarding queer experiences of my life. We seem to have survived the major COVID disruptions and there really does seem to be light at the end of that tunnel. We continue to effortlessly absorb new members and appropriately mourn the loss to death of at least 7 or 8 members over the years. Fortunately, no losses to COVID that I am aware of even though we are all at high risk.
In closing, I would like to reference a recent example of resolve in action. This would be the vote on the last day of Black History month, February 28th, in the House of Representatives on the Crown Act. This was a bill to outlaw discrimination based on hair specifically as it would be related to discrimination against African American hairstyles in the workplace. It needed a 2/3 majority to pass and fell short thanks to 188 Republicans voting against it. One of the “nay” votes came from Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert who called it a” bad hair bill”. Several African American women in the House though have resolved to bring it back up again for a simple majority vote in the near process. This is a much lengthier process, but they are determined.
Hereby let me resolve once more to never vote Republican.