When I was a teenager, my family took a vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina where we visited the Wright Brothers Memorial. I have always been a sucker for triumphant underdog stories and the tale of two bicycle repair shop owners years-long endeavor was inspiring. I left with a poster of the Wright Flyer schematic surrounded by the inscription on the memorial:
“In commemoration of the conquest of the air by the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright conceived by genius achieved by dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith.”
I hung it on my wall for many years. I recently found it in some things stuffed in the back of my storage unit… faded and yellowed with age. The inscription was an inspiration… more than that… as a young person pursuing a profession in academia it almost became a mantra. I wanted to experience just one flash of the genius of the brothers Wright. I saw my path in that phrase “dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith”. When I was tired, fed up, beaten down, ready to give in… I turned to that poster. To that quote. To this day, I cannot read it in silence without tearing up. I can barely quote it to someone without my voice breaking and starting to cry… it means that much to me.
That may be silly, I know, but as I sit here dabbing my eyes and typing this I can’t help but think of the sacrifices others have made… far more than any I’ll ever make… that have afforded me and all of us the lives we live today.
When I decided to start this web site, I needed a domain name. I started with the word “trans” since I wanted to use it specifically for my trans experiences. But I quickly decided it felt too clinical or political or something… something wasn’t right. I moved on to other descriptive words when I decided I didn’t need to use something that made sense… after all, so many things in the world have meaningless words for names.
I started to think of things I liked… a poem perhaps could offer inspiration, but all the poetry I recall is dark, and was not setting the right tone. As I was entering things in a domain search, I was surprised at the massive array of top level domains offered up when dotcom/net/org were not available. The last time I shopped for a domain it was those three or nothing. Wow, how things have changed. Anyway, I got to thinking maybe the domain extension should be part of the name. I also had decided I wanted a word that was real and meant something.
I had been talking to a friend a few days before in which flight and the Wright Brothers came up (he’s a former pilot) and I remembered the quote and thought for a laugh I’d try “dauntless”. As I scrolled down the list of possibilities I saw “dauntless.love” and knew it was special. I had to use that!
Even though it doesn’t relay ANYTHING about what this sight is about… it captures how I hope to live during and after my transition. Because this is a word generally out of favor these days, pushed aside for the more popular yet somehow less sophisticated “undaunted” I give you the Oxford definition:
Dauntless: showing fearlessness and determination
That’s what I’m hoping I’ll be able to live up to… in love and life.
