Take: An Exercise on Words

September 24, 2003


It is a verb, neither positive nor negative but capable of being either. I take you to be my lawfully wedded wife, I take away your virginity, I take your toy away from you. I take you for all that you are and all that you may be. I take you as you are and will cherish you always. You can take what is given or take away what one wants to keep. One word can change your world and bring light or darkness to live inside you.

‘I can’t take it anymore, I can’t take you anymore.’

You rescind what you once promised to cherish and hold and love for what was and what would be. Taking should be done with caution lest you change your mind and take away the promise you once extended.

‘I will take you away from here.’ Also neutral. That may be a wonderful thing as the ‘here’ can be a bad place, a place where one wants to be taken away from. But what if you loved where you were and you were being taken away, kidnapped, never to see your loved ones again? Lost to the rest of the world. Taken and never given back. Taken and losing yourself.

I take this life that I lead and I hold it to me. I am not ready to have it be taken away from me so I will take the first step and swallow my pride. I will take charge of my life and take away the bad , replacing it with the good that I have found nearby.

But sometimes you want to be taken away from a place and have no one to do it for you. What then? You must take yourself away. Like a thief in the night. I take Leita away from here, so that she can be well taken care of by herself. And in order to do that, she must make the first step, and swallow that big pride of hers. In order to take something, you must give something away.

Take, for example, a beer mug full of tea. Earl Grey to be exact. The water has been altered and the tea cannot darken to its fullest as a large chunk of lemon had been added. So the tea remains a light amber, pulp floating inside. I add four cubes of sugar and watch them disintegrate before my eyes. I lose something to gain another. The taste has changed. Earl grey has revealed a different side to me. It is a different step. And not unpleasant.