I was sitting in the park this evening reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and looked across to see this little expression on the window of the yarn shop.
I noticed that I read it panel to panel, rather than like words on a page.
Naturally I wondered, Why?
When do I ever read words top to bottom? Never that I am aware of.
The only thing I can determine caused this was the window frame.
It blocks off the words “Good” and “Take” from the words “Things” and “Time”. So that’s how I read it.
Messaging is interesting.
Words mean a lot, but maybe their presentation means more?
Maybe not, but in this case, without that bar, I would have read the message as I imagine it was intended to be read.
Or, what if I read it exactly how it was intended to be read?
Maybe the message really is, “Good take. Things time.”
What would be so ‘wrong’ about that?
Is this a philosophical exploration by the yarn store owner or is it a “bad” presentation of marketing?
“Good take” could be a direct message to the reader.
“Things time” sort of reads as Gen Z slang that might tell you, “time is long and full of hard stuff.”
Who’s to say!
There’s no right answer here.
And that makes this a worthwhile reflection.
It was a moment of awareness — “ahh, why’d you read it that way do you think?” — that lead to me writing this down and finding new things I think beyond the original observation.
That’s the point.
That’s the beauty of writing I think.
You get somewhere else than where you started.
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