Out of curiosity, how long did it take you to figure out what this shirt says?
Probably like a second.
I remember the first time I saw this shirt. It was when I took this picture, creepily, of Martin's back. I had been walking behind him for quite some time, giving more of my attention to the scribbles on his back than to the fallen wall of Jericho to which my mind was meant to be focused.
I could tell they were not random, that they did, in fact, spell something, but it took me an absolutely pathetic amount of time to figure out what.
Now, however, after a good four months of hanging out in Shabon's shop* and seeing at least one person wear this shirt at least once a week, the words seem so blatantly obvious that I am ashamed of how long it took my mind to work them out.
And, um, on that note... will someone (from Jerusalem) please tell me what was on the front of the shirt? A tree, yeah? Was it a shittim tree? I am seriously looking for an answer here.
*I just came to the extremely sad realization that this is the only picture of Shabon that I have.
Seeing as it does not include his black fuzzy hat or the plastic cups he always seemed to produce, it no where near does him justice.
His shop was, in all honestly, a bit disappointing to the sight. There were no carpets draped from wall to wall, no colorful displays, no over-large bird sitting in the corner. But looks, it turns out, can be deceiving*.
It turned out that Shabon sold literally everything in his shop, and i have yet to figure out where it was all stored. Giant lime green bed spread? Olive oil soap? Genie pants? Lanterns? Posters? Bags, scripture cases, shirts, widow's mites, rings... he had it all. And if he didn't have it, "you wait two weeks, I have it for you."
But the truly best thing about Shabon was his prices. Time after time I was brought to the realization that he really did have the lowest prices, and if you brought him a picture of something you wanted he would tell you the reasonable amount to pay.
I miss him. I miss the Mormon song to the tune of "Oh come, all ye faithful." I miss every aspect of Jerusalem in so many ways.
*while spelling deceiving just now I used the "i after e except after c" rule for the first time in my life.
i'm pretty sure it's an olive tree. it's from the semester right before mine. the worst part about those shirts is the HIDEOUS green color.
ReplyDeleteShabon told me that he designed the writing on that shirt. They are all apparently Arabic letters.
Shabon's a secret artist, I think. He designed the cityscape on the scripture cases, too.
I want to talk to you about all of this stuff!