Resolution ... of a sort
@owlwings (43910)
Cambridge, England
December 29, 2018 4:50am CST
“I hereby resolve … “. I stared at the words I had written on an otherwise blank sheet of paper. A curious word, ‘resolve’. In music it means coming to a satisfactory ending but a New Year’s Resolution is a beginning of something – a promise to oneself which, in fact, is often not resolved!
I crossed out the word ‘resolve’ and wrote ‘absolve’ above it. Who should I free from an obligation or from guilt (and what guilt or what duty)? Myself or someone else, perhaps? Would it be a solution or a salvation?
Time for a bath! I turned the taps and watched the steam rise; undressed and stepped in. As my body rejoiced in soaking up the warmth, it occurred to me that I had achieved the absolute dissolution of resolve - “Soluo!”, I exclaimed - “I am set free! This is true resolution”.
[146 words]
The above is my contribution to @indexer's challenge. It might not be quite what was expected but it is more than I had hoped for!
17 people like this
16 responses
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
29 Dec 18
@indexer I did, of course, but I couldn't fit them all in! I am also intrigued by the possible relationships between 'soluere'/'solvere' (to set free), 'saluare'/'salvare' (to save, deliver) and, indeed, 'salire' (to spring, leap but it can also mean to sprinkle as in 'to salt one's food'), and 'saltare' (to dance). I am no Latin scholar and do but dabble in etymology (though, I hope, with my wits about me).
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@changjiangzhibin89 (16755)
• China
7 Jan 19
It is beyond me why the word "resolution" also means how clear a picture is.
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@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
7 Jan 19
I know. It's very difficult to follow the logic behind the different meanings of 'resolution' which comes directly from a word in Latin which meant 'to loosen' or 'to free'. These days, 'resolution' is used mostly to mean the number of pixels per centimetre or inch but in early photography it referred to the size of the smallest detail which could be discerned in the image (in a sense, the size of the detail which could be 'freed' or 'loosened' or 'picked out').
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@changjiangzhibin89 (16755)
• China
8 Jan 19
@owlwings Thanks for explaining patiently it to me ! Just as Chinese character,a word in English would have a lot of extended meanings.
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@TiarasOceanView (70022)
• United States
18 Sep 19
I hope you continue on your freedom journey Owl.
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@everwonderwhy (7303)
•
20 Mar 19
At the beginning of the year, you make the traditional flow of making resolutions. By the third month, you make absolution --let yourself off the hook--of your 'guilt and sin' for not following through your promises.
But then again, dreaming of resolutions is not expensive. So, resolve away to your heart's content any time of the year. :-D
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@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
20 Mar 19
It's true that one can make resolutions any time. People call them 'goals' these days and then we talk about 'moving the goal posts'. As you may notice, I'm a 'word wonderer': I tend to wonder a lot about words - how they came to mean what they do today, why different people have different (and sometimes quite opposite) meanings for the same word.
I still haven't come to any real conclusion as to how 'resolutiion', 'absolution', dissolution' all come from the same Latin word which gives us 'solution' (and whether they have anything to do with 'salvation' and 'salute'!).
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@celticeagle (166672)
• Boise, Idaho
30 Dec 18
Good one. Always nice to have something come out more than you had hoped for.
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@noni1959 (10096)
• United States
29 Dec 18
I'll resolve one day and not the next. It's too definite of a word to not fall off occasionally. I have resolved to save for my travel trailer; however, there is always something that will come up and I have to dip in if I don't want to run up more credit. It's a word not to be just tossed around.
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