What is Islam?

The word “Islam” is an Arabic word that means “submitting and surrendering your will to Almighty God”. The word comes from the same root as the Arabic word “salam”, which means peace. Unlike the names used for other religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity, the name “Islam” was both revealed by God and mentioned explicitly in the Holy Scripture – The Qur’an. Islam carries a deep spiritual meaning — only by submitting one’s will to Almighty God can one obtain true peace both in this life and in the life hereafter. Islam teaches that all religions originally had the same essential message — which was to submit whole-heartedly to the will of God and to worship Him and Him alone. For this reason, Islam is not a new religion but is the same divinely revealed Ultimate Truth that God revealed to all prophets, including Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them all).

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Aren’t they purdy?

You can’t say that big dude at the end wasn’t doin the damn thang.

(someone TP’ed the house down the street from me)

Toilet papering is, as its name suggests, the act of covering an object (usually a tree, house, or other structure of similar size) with toilet paper. This is typically done by throwing numerous toilet paper rolls in such a way that they unroll in mid-air and thus fall on the targeted object in multiple streams.
Toilet papering, also called TP’ing or Yard Rolling, has become a popular tradition in the United States, and usually takes place after the completion of a school’s homecoming football game, as well as on Halloween, though it is not restricted to these dates in any way.
It is often done in small groups, and these groups will usually target certain houses and toilet paper the entire yard. The mess is usually relatively easy to clean, but rainfall can cause the toilet paper to become soggy and sticky, making cleanup more difficult and troublesome.
Toilet papering is an act of vandalism and a crime all around the United States, it also may cause one to go to jail, but many people, especially those in small communities, allow their houses to be toilet papered on homecoming night and are not concerned with reporting it to the police. Many communities have experienced problems, however, with other activities that often accompany toilet papering, such as eggingcreaming, which can actually cause serious property damage. As a result, toilet papering itself has been labeled in recent years as a dangerous activity, and many communities are tightening restrictions on it, ordering that stores not sell toilet paper to adolescents starting a week or so before the homecoming game, and making sure that police are actively scanning the streets on homecoming night to find potential toilet paperers and confiscate their materials. and
Yet toilet papering can be used not just to celebrate homecomings, sometimes toilet papering are used after graduations, along with the typical shoe polishing of cars. It can also be done as a joke, or as a somewhat malicious (yet generally harmless) prank. Teachers, friends, school buildings, and other figures are popular targets for toilet-paperers.
Also toilet papering can be a rite of passage. When a group TP’s a person’s house, it is that group accepting the person’s house is being TP’d into their group or circle of friends.
In terms of usage, it can also be used as a verb — for example: “Dude, Charlie got toilet-papered so bad!”
Some people see this as a personal insult and will retaliate violently.

Categories of people vulnerable to having low self-esteem
*Children who were verbally, emotionally, physically, sexually abused
*Children who were not loved and accepted unconditionally either at home, at school or in the community
*Children of parents or grandchildren of grandparents who came from a codependent or dysfunctional family system
*Children of dependent parents (alcohol, drugs, gambling, food, shopping, sex)
*Children of workaholic parents
*Children of mentally ill parents
*Children raised in a high stress environment
*Children raised in an environment where feelings were not openly expressed, experienced, or welcome
*Children who have experienced the divorce of their parents
*Children who have experienced the loss of a parent or significant other in their childhood
*Children raised in an absolutist or fundamentalist environment
*Children raised in a family headed by a single parent due to divorce, death, or absence due to career
*Children who were abused emotionally or verbally in a school environment
*Adults who have been hurt badly in a relationship, in marriage, in school, at work, or in the community
*Adults who work in a codependent work environment
*Adults hurt in a relationship at work or in the community with someone and/or married to someone who is dependent (alcohol, drugs, gambling, food, shopping, sex
*Adults in a relationship with someone or married to someone who is a workaholic
*In a relationship with someone or married to someone who comes from a codependent family or work system
*Members of a family in which a child with a developmental disability is born and reared
*Members of a family in which a chronically ill family member is cared for
*Members of a family or work environment in which a compulsive individual lives
*Compulsive or dependent individuals once they are treated and enter recovery
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Building Self-Esteem
A Question of Self-Esteem

A local reader asked over coffee a few questions about self-esteem. Since the information is worth sharing, I present it here in Question and Answer form.

Q: “What is self-esteem? Is it another word for self-confidence?”

A: No, they are different. SELF-ESTEEM deals with the image we have of ourselves. It is about how we see and FEEL about ourselves. It is about the degree to which we VALUE ourselves. Those who have a positive self-image, hold themselves in ESTEEM. (They have high self-esteem.)
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