I hate math

Last night I watched a movie in which there was a fortuitous appearance of a third party that kept two people from falling in to sin together. I thought a lot about it last night. How many circumstanses in my life have been fortuitous- meaning that if one little thing hadn't happened, things might have turned out very badly?
This morning I got up and went into the kitchen to have a drink of water. I picked up our brita water filter and held it under the tap and turned the tap on full blast, just like I do every morning. Only this time the tap leapt to life, spraying me full in the face and all down my front and all over the counters with cold water. I jumped back, sputtering and soaking wet and heard Miriam laughing from the other room.
"I forgot to tell you, Heather!" She said. "Last night I knocked the faucet and it broke. You can only turn it on a little bit, otherwise it sprays out."
I went to dry off feeling a little bit grumpy. Afterwards I thought, what if that was fortuitous? What if there had been a sniper sitting in the tree outside my kitchen window about to shoot me, but as I leapt away from the sink I threw his aim off and the bullet lodged in the roof above us? Of course, I didn't really hear a gunshot, but you never know.....
Today I have a math final exam. My last math exam ever. In high school I hated math and swore I would never take it, and guess what! This is my fifth semester of math! Sometimes I wonder if I am crazy. Well, I kind of feel like I've been going crazy the last few days studying calculus from dawn till dusk. The good news is, that in a few short hours I can give away my textbooks and burn my notes and never take math again! Hallelujah for calculators and computers and accountants!
But really, perhaps it is fortuitous that I've studied all this math? Perhaps years down the road I will be visiting a school in Angola and they will ask me to teach math for a week and I will know how. Perhaps this year when I do my taxes the math will come in handy. Perhaps one day I will be working for a chemical engineering company and haveto solve a complicated integral in order to program my polymer-making machine. (Highly unlikely.) Perhaps one day I can help my kids do their homework.
If nothing else, however, studying math has helped to develop discipline and character. Now when I see a huge list of problems that I don't know how to do, instead of feeling like crying and giving up (okay, I still feel like crying everytime I do math), I just grit my teeth and get down to it and somehow get it done. Math is something that must be done every day. It is a discipline, not unlike running or push-ups or praying or reading your bible. As you work at it regularily, it becomes a more and more powerful tool. As you work at it, it becomes an integral part of you.

Aaaahhhh! Did you notice that? I just used the word 'integral' in normal conversation!!!!! It's taken me over! It's consumed me! I hate it!