During the long, silent years, when he sat with Lis on his lonely Majorcan clifftop fighting off depression, his children say that he gradually let go of bitterness, and these days determinedly focusses on remembering only the positive side of things.
He determinedly focuses on her care: not only serving as her nurse, but also cooking their meals, cleaning the house, filing her medical forms, while kowtowing to his hated boss because he knows that if he is fired, they will lose their precious medical insurance.
Indeed, in Manhattan, the City Congregation for Humanistic Judaism holds a seder for 85 that is determinedly secular, focusing on cultural, historical and political themes.
He and his competitors walk to the start line, nerves jangling, all focused determinedly on the race ahead.
And, after a week in which the Bush administration focused determinedly on the good things that could emanate from an Iraq after Saddam Hussein, Mr. de Villepin reminded Americans that war means bloodshed.
In the wide-ranging online conversation about Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner's "Lincoln," it's been interesting to watch the movie be praised and criticized for the same artistic choice: Its determinedly narrow focus on the month or so of politicking and debate that pushed the 13th Amendment through a reluctant House of Representatives.
I swam determinedly towards the shore, focusing on the finish.
There would be no assurance of that outcome, but Beijing has determinedly sought to re-focus the relationship on win-win economic relations rather than zero-sum military competition.
Dresden is almost the anti-Cologne — determinedly antiviolent and careful in its fliers and patriotic placards to stay on the right side of laws banning hate speech — yet focused on many of the same targets.
