learning to give and take

something a child should learn; but you know, in this world, they only teach children to share, and sharing's not the same as giving and taking. sharing doesn't teach you any of that balance, and maybe if we taught our kids how to balance, taught them how to give and take, the world wouldn't be so messed up and we wouldn't spend our entire lifetimes trying to find the solution to that rickety scale, forever stumped because of what we learned when we were stupid, incomplete, at the mercy of the adults

what happens when someone gives you something you don't want to take? you tried giving back without accepting; but that's not even a trade, giving away all of something because you don't want to take what he's offering, and you-- me-- us all-- all we know is sharing, giving only a little bit, keeping the best half for yourself-- myself-- ourselves.

when someone gives you something you don't want to take, what do you do?

haunts you to sleep, haunts me to dreams, haunts us all to our graves. It's the things we learned as children that mess us up; I think Freud was right.

close these eyes, squeeze them shut, absorb the headache, let it go, go to bed, take a breath, see you tomorrow.

if you were me, what would you do? what would you do?