David Giffels' "Shirt-Worthy" is a story of how a father finally felt like he earned his Ramone's T-shirt. He tells us that to be "worthy" of wearing a Ramone's shirt you were obligated to attend concerts and actually buy one there. The shirt needed to be worn out, maybe faded, and more or less dirty with your own blood, sweat, and tears. This was the only way to not be a poser, someone who does or wears something just to fit in and be cool, as we would call them today. Giffels didn't feel worthy of having a Ramone's shirt even though he attended some concert's. He said, "it felt to easy," or something along those lines. When he buys his son the t-shirt putting aside his past values to be a father figure and his son rips it on a fence he finally feels that he has earned his own Ramone's shirt. Back then it was harder for someone to pull of a t-shirt like that. If you had a band shirt people knew you attended concerts. Nowadays anyone can have whatever shirt they want. You can say, "hey man I love the Ramone's too," and the person may respond with a thank you and actually know not one song by that band. What I feel he is trying to get at is that it is too easy for kids today to get whatever they want. They might not form memories with something such as a t-shirt because they just went to the mall and bought it instead of living it. Earning gives an object meaning.
This story is relevant to our time because it shows us how hard people used to need to work to get what they wanted. Nobody could be a poser because they had to earn that t-shirt. Giffels is speaking to whoever remembers a time when something you wanted wasn't as available as they are today, or even possibly to a kid these days who has the same morals about earning their belongings. The point of Giffels' writing is to address those people who don't care about the meaning of objects and just have them because they look cool or want to fit in.
The author is particularly strong with dialogue. I hope to use dialogue to get my point across and reach the readers emotions like David Giffels. Ethically on the other hand he is reaching his audience saying that he knew he wasn't worthy of the shirt and didn't buy one anyway. He wanted to earn it himself. The logical part of this narrative is how he put his past values aside to get his son what he wanted. Using ethos, pathos, and logos David Giffels addressed the exigence with a message that fit his meaning.
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