Since about two weeks I am away from Barcelona, my lovely hometown of the present. The news of the recent terrorist incidents came in a morning hour to the far-East, as a thunderbolt hitting the heart. A wound that hurts deeply. I have no words.
It doesn’t matter what a city looks like and feels like without its locals: Barcelona and Catalunya is what it is because of its people who fill it with life, happiness, togetherness and peaceful acceptance. They stayed faithful to their values in the dark hours, offering shelter, blood, transportation, psychological support, or whatever that was needed, and they continue to act accordingly. I am with them. We are light, we are One.
Meanwhile in the far-East where we are travelling, in the same time I passed a very bad food poisoning, which ridiculously didn’t came from the street food of Taipei, but from a fancy Japanese restaurant where coincidences took us that evening, meeting there with a Spanish friend who happened to be around. I guess this had to happen, it was a fast-paced sickness which bore its blessings. And travelling with high fever is still a lot better than many other things. But my memory is not very adequate of that day, as after a really high feverish night still high on fever we had to leave to travel to our next stop: Seoul, South Korea. Of this, I’ll write later, just like as about Shanghai and Taipei. And Ureshino, at South-Japan, where we are now.
What still remained very clear even in these feverish hours, were the T-shirt messages I was reading since we embarked on our trip. Synchronicity? Messages of God? Or the collective unconscious? I think both. You can decide to yourself as I’ll share examples of my precious collection.
In Beijing, people generally speak very little English (or Spanish or French or Catalan or Hungarian or German – to cover all our capacities at once). But they are great artists in wearing incredible English-texted T-shirts.
This tendency continues all along to Shanghai – here people speak just a little bit more English, depending on where you go -; than in Taipei we meet the same waves, though less frequently, and – even with a high fever and a headache – it remains detectable all along Seoul.
I have to confess it became my obsession: I try to photograph T-shirt messages all along our travel, but as usual, the best can’t be documented, as it is extremely hard (for me) to take a photo of someone walking behind/beside me (or coming toward me) without disturbing his/her personal space. As I was not interested in documenting the person, only the T-shirt. Sometimes it was not possible to separate these two aspects.
Maybe the act of God is more powerful through the»grace of not knowing», but probably some message-bearers were aware and wanted the whole word to know it. For me, during this trip, the message and the bearer of the message became one.
Some of my favs:
walk like a boy · believe in today · tell me something new · don’t touch · waiting time 30 minutes · cheerup · the little excitement in everyday life (OK, this was written a bag) · bonjour bitches · it’s a beautiful Sunday to leave me alone
and of which I have no record: self service only · unavailable (both wore by women)
I hope you’ll have a lovely week, spotting the closest T-shirt messages to you!
謝謝 <3
