When you want to keep up

where do you keep it?

Up is the strangest of verbs. Look at all the ways we use it:

Take up. Where?

Give up. To whom? This is a neat one because the up is relational. The up is a gift. Again odd considering that giving up is thought of as negative. If you give up, who receives the gift of up?

Make up. How? Up is a direction. Is there a process for making up? How do you make up? What are the physical steps in making up? Where do they bring you?

Look up. That’s easy to do if up is a direction. This becomes more difficult to understand in the sense that the phrase is frequently used. Given that ‘look up’ means to find, or search for, what happens if what you’re looking for is down low?

Show up. What does up need to see?

Set up. I didn’t know it was a watch.

Give up. What are we giving to up? What is this up that we’re giving? Who gets the up when we give it?

Blow up. Who is up? When do they get blown? Who is performing the act of blowing. Do any of you need a name tag that says ‘up’? Maybe the army will blow you.

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