Things I learned in school today.

Between; my mother's help, the money I recieved from my part time gig with the princeton review, and the other half of my student loan money I am a bit flush with Cash (I rarely have this much money in my bank book.

It has made me appreciate how good it feels to pay bills. I always loathed paying bills, but go a bit without paying them and there is just something life afirming about paying your bills.

I ate my first "out" food since I have moved up here -a entry amount of food-. With that and the time i cobbled togther some cash for a candy bar I've learned to appreciate the pleasures in eating those things on occassion.... where prior to this I just learned the pleasure in eating them.

Since we had the Hurricane I got to experience being sleep deprived and walking like a zombie through the day working off of sugar and caffine to make my body pass through its duties.

I've also reflected on something else.

If you don't know the University of South Florida we have a pretty big Muslim community. And amongst the muslim girls I see a division of two categories.

One that dresses in what you'd call the secular standard and one that wears the hijab, the traditional head scarf.

looking at the two I am struck by something. I see Muslim girls with the Hijab wearing school spirit shirts and tee shirts that scream loudly in colors even Walt Disney on acid couldn't imagine.

The others wear tones of color that look good for them, but are clearly more ordinary.

The girls wearing the Hijab have on school pride shirts, I even saw one wearing Mardi Gras styled beads.

To this I must parase a comment. My mother told me a valuable life lesson she learned when she worked in construction. Always beware the man who brings his bible to work. This came because she worked on a job for a jewish woman who sold all manner of high end wedding products and services. On the death of her live in boyfriend of decades her "good christian friends" prayed for her. And as they prayed with her they talked her into buying a larger shop on loans, something the man she loved had pushed her not to do.

They prayed for her and told her to go hire their friend who was a contractor. She did so and this good christian man read the bible every day ( aloud) and ended up cheating the subcontractors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars ( my mother being one of them)

as the building was becoming a money pit... her good christian friends parayed for her and helped her get new loans, new loans... from them.

once that happened, they stopped praying and started attacking her credit.

you can read your bible at work or at school and be a good and true christian, but when you try to show it off... you are clearly projecting something.

This goes into why to many of us "Trust me" is a use of a 4 letter word. If I need you to tell me to trust you, you've probably done something untrustworthy.

So back to the two muslim girls. The ones in the Hijab are clearly either emulating others, or worse obeying the words of elders in their community and trying to -show- their piety.

The ones without the Hijab do as the Koran tells them, they rarely push their Islam out there but do talk about it as a proper believer should. It does impact their life and their soul.

Spending money does not give a true appreciation of money either, an absence of money gives one an appreciation for it.

The only pleasure of the soul come from struggle and then understanding.

Thats what I learned today in school