What do you do?

“What do you do?” I ask.

            “I teach,” he says. He works at a school that teaches stylists how to cut hair.

            “How much is the tuition?

            “Expensive.”

            “How much?”

            “Well, it depends on where you go. It can be as low as two thousand or as high as thirty.”

            “My god How much does a stylist make when he finishes?”

            “Most make minimum wage.”

            “Is your school expensive?” I ask.

            “Very.”

            “What are most people paid after graduation?”

            “Minimum wage.”

            “That’s it?”

            “After a while, they make more. A few make a lot more. But it doesn’t really matter where you go to school. You can still compete.”

            “How much is the most expensive haircut?”

            “I know a place in Beverly Hills where it’s eight hundred dollars.”

            “Really?”

            “Yes, but that the highest. “ He is as amused as I am. A minute later he moves on to another machine. We are at the gym. I do not know him.

            I think about how interesting it is that we put such prices on any kind of education. Learning is in spite of money, not because of it. It doesn’t really have a price.

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(All rights reserved 2012 James P. White) No part of this work may be reproduce in any way, except to quote in interviews or reviews, without the express permission of the author)