A Stone Wall or a Stonewall? Either way...

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I'm sure you've all heard of the expression

to
"stonewall"
someone/something.

To delay progress.

To halt momentum.

To stall an advancement.

To block new developments.

To refuse cooperation.

That type of thing.

If you paid any attention during your American history courses
(not judging you if you didn't...
I snoozed through courses plenty of times a math class here and there.)

you might have even heard of a fellow

by the name of 

Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson

who earned his nickname at the 

Battle of Bull Run

for standing his ground and refusing to budge -

hence appearing to his opponent as standing like a 

"stone wall."

{Photo credits belong here, here, here, and here.}

If you really didn't remember this guy

or only vaguely remember the reference to his famous nickname

*no worries*

I'm sure my near ability to write his entire biography

has something to do with the fact 

that

 my last name

is

STONEWALL.

Question:

How many times do you think I heard this little ditty growing up?

 Answer:
76% of the times I walked into a classroom for a first time.
................

I don't really know that.
I just made that statistic up.

It happened a lot - let's just put it that way.
At least once a year.
An annoying number of times the older I got.

Finally I got fed up with the association
 so I'd respond with:

Ok.
This story is not true, either.

I did not
in fact
ever
ever
ever
utter those exact words.

Or anything slightly resembling those words, really.

Usually I'd just chuckle politely so the teacher
could still assume they were both incredibly clever and original
for linking the two names.


Funny, though...nobody ever asked me if I
was named after:

The Stonewall Kitchen creators

Original Photo Credit

or

The owners of the Stonewall Resort

Original Photo Credit

or

Participants in The Stonewall Riots.

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The reason for all the
STONE WALL
or
STONEWALL
conversation around these parts today is because
shortly after I made the decision to quit blogging
back in March of this year -

I received this anonymous comment:

Cryptic, no?

Anyways.
For awhile I really let this
totally "anonymous" comment bother me.

Then I remembered that I'm a Stonewall.

or better yet.

A
stone
wall.

I won't back down.
I will stand my ground.
I'll name resorts after myself
if I want to.
I'll actively pursue civil rights on behalf of the LGBT community
if I want to.
I'll make crafts
if I want to.
I'll talk about the Stars of the Week
if I want to.
I'll discuss sucking at running
if I want to.
I'll talk politics
if I want to.


I will out stonewall the biggest stonewaller out there.
No big.

....and so this blog continues.

Because really....
who's gon stop me?

Huh?

{Certainly not "anonymous."} 

 *****************************************
Have you ever felt like you were being stonewalled?
*****************************************

Feeling stonewalled is only one minor reason I ultimately decided to pick back up this little blogging hobby.
My readers (especially my local readers) that have personally expressed that they'd like me to keep on inspiring my own community have ultimately been my greatest source of a renewal in blogging energy.
To those of you that have recently expressed a desire to keep reading my thoughts...
"thank you."
Sometimes a gentle nudge is all that's needed in my world.