resolution: in chemistry, the process of reducing or separating something into its components
It's New Year's Eve and I'm sitting here, staring at my laptop, having convinced myself that everyone already knows what the word "resolution" means, especially around this time of year. To most, resolution means expansive lists of vague goals to accomplish, stuff to obtain, ways to improve, things to do! But let's trash that. Let's throw that hum-drum definition in the filthy garbage.
I like the way the field of chemistry defines resolution instead. It's far better than, "a firm decision to do or not to do something." Oh no, chemists are not into firm decisions, oh no no they are not. Chemists are all about the process. Chemists take an item, a composite, a mixture of something they already know and have, and they reduce it, separate it down into it's most basic components. Now this sounds like a much more fitting definition, a much more evolved way to approach resolutions in the coming year.
I like it! I'm going with it!! Mainly because over the last few years, I have been struggling to achieve, achieve, achieve lofty and unattainable goals. And instead of achieving I've spun my wheels, ending up with half-baked resolutions, plans, things, stuff, what have you. Muddling along, I have come to know intimately what the end products, mixtures and composites are, primarily because I often live preoccupied with the future and forget to relish the most basic components of the present. So, this year, I would like to resolve all that I have been working towards and instead know every small piece and part that makes up my end products just as intimately as I know the products themselves.
To chemistry!
