New Arrival, Old Shirt

With the arrival of our third baby on Monday, I was reminded of a t-shirt I bought in college. It’s a Brett Colley print symbolizing (and critiquing) the “get a degree, get a job, get a car, get a family…” consumerism of mainstream America. As a single college student I liked the look and was ambivalent about the message. These days, with three kids and a Chrysler Town & Country, the image (if not the critique) hits a little too close to home. Come on, doesn’t everyone’s first week with a new baby feel like this?

The shirt was one of a series that became the unofficial t-shirts of the GVSU art department that year, and you could see students in them daily. I was wearing it one day on a city bus and forgot I had it on until a young black man sitting across from me asked:

him: Is that a baby?
me: What?
him: Is that a baby, man?
me: Oh, yeah. Yeah, it’s a baby.
him: [pause] That’s a BIG baby, man.
me: [laughing] Yeah, it’s a big baby.