submit

This is a frightening word. It speaks of a loss of freedom, but unlike "surrender," "capitulate," or "give up," as a command it is startlingly crisp, casual, nonchalant, almost official. To submit can also be to send a piece of writing, art, or other work for the consideration of another, but is this not a loss of freedom? Is it not to defer to the will of another? Though its common uses are rather humdrum, consideration of the word itself reminds us that we regularly acquiesce to certain things leaving our control. For me, a word's weight is anchored, too heavily perhaps, to its relation to or effect upon the self, and "submit" always denotes a robbery, a loss of some part of that self. Any inactive moment is a submission to time's will to erase you; we can and do debate about time's existence, but strangely we all agree that we have less of it with each passing day. And I have wasted many a moment. Do not submit.