02.24.07
Postmodern T-Shirts
My mom treated us to dinner last night at a place call Pizza Express. It’s one of those $3.99 pizza buffet places. It was Friday night, and it was packed. We had to wait a bit for someone to get up and leave before we could sit down. We saw a group of four get up (we were a group of 8), and a young man offered to hold the table for us while we went to find someone to clear it off.
I immediately noticed the young man’s t-shirt. In big bold letters, the shirt said, “If you ain’t Sunni, you ain’t Shiite.” I was puzzled by his slightly off-color shirt, but didn’t feel I should bring anything up. But the person at the table next to me did ask him what his shirt meant. I eavesdropped, and was very surprised by the young man’s answer.
He explained that it only meant whatever the person reading it wanted it to mean. Unsatisfied, the man who asked about the shirt pressed the young man to explain what he thought it meant. Obviously the wearer of the shirt bought it and chose to wear it for a reason. But the young man refused to interpret the shirt for us, and explained again that it can mean whatever we wanted it to mean.
I really feel like that’s a cop out. I don’t think you can wear a shirt that talks about two Muslim groups and not have an opinion on what it means. But his answer was very “postmodern.” Many young people (in Italy and elsewhere) don’t feel there are any absolutes, and so for him to “interpret” the shirt would be “judging” it.
But isn’t that really just a form of cowardice? By not refusing to interpret a t-shirt (or an ancient Book), aren’t people really saying that they’re just not brave enough to stick up for their own opinion?
All those deep thoughts, from one little t-shirt!
Feel free to comment now, Josh. (He’s my teammate, and I know this is the kind of post he’s going to jump all over).