Sun and Moon

I picked out this shirt from a catalog about 10 years ago.
My family used to do go though direct mail catalogs for Christmas gifts and such. We still get them all the time -on like a dozen mailing lists- we just rarely shop from them anymore. It was a whole process of each person going though a big stack of 50 or so. We would each mark what we wanted, what might be good for someone else and what could be a great gift for someone on our list. I picked this out of one of those nature/earth goods books -kind of like the Discovery store was a long time ago-. I thought this design was really old but by looking up "sun and moon yin yang shirt" I pulled up a place where you can still order them online.
http://www.musicbands.com/Night-Day-Tie-Dye-TShirt/M/B000BRO29C.htm
The main reason I wanted this shirt was because it was so drastically different from any other that I had ever owned. It wasn't one color, it wasn't just a brand or logo or saying, and it had a mysterious, non-denominational spiritual reference. The fabric is tie-dyed and then the images are added on top. When it finally came in the shirt was too large for me -I was in middle school a the time- so I ended up wearing it to bed as a sleeping shirt. Now it fits okay but it's still a large. After 10 years the tie-dye hasn't been effected at all, but some of the graphics are finally cracking and breaking -there are even 2 holes near the hem and some stains on the shoulder-.
The reason I chose this design was for its complexity so I'll see if I can be as descriptive as possible. First take notice of the fabric, the background of this layout. From the right shoulder to the center is a sky blue -they even added clouds on the front to enhance this effect-. From the bottom right to the middle is a navy blue or a night sky -with added stars and a galaxy-. On the front, in the "daytime" is the sun with a goddess-like face. In the "night" area is a galaxy and a crescent moon -it has an old man's face with an epic beard-. On the back is a yin-yang shape with the two celestial bodies: the same sun as the front on a starry sky and a full moon over a cloudy sunset.
I enjoy the free-spiritedness that this shirt radiates. It's the kind of shirt that a hippie is expected to wear. This style of shirt is really part of a genre and you can get all sorts of crazy peace signs, animals, nature, gods, religious symbols mishmashed together. When people see this I assume they think that I do drugs, which can be expected for any shirt like this. I chose to wear it this weekend because I hadn't worn it in forever and wanted to gauge people's reactions.

I wore this shirt for a while in high school up until one event. There was another kid that wore it on the same day as I -tragic-. I tried to lay low the rest of the periods and pretty much never wore it again. Suffice to say it wasn't someone who was cool -and I really never thought anyone would have this shirt!-. Today has been hit and miss, mainly comments about the stains and holes and such. Maybe this shirt was "me" but I think I've changed and can't pull off this groovy kind of shirt seriously anymore. I want to be able to though, so I'll try and work on my open-mindedness and getting back some spirituality.