Go ‘head, give it a good read.
I have driven past this sign on East Calhoun in Macomb for many months. And each time, I have wondered: WTFrick?
But a few other questions have arisen as well.
- Shall we begin with the unique spelling of “Maqom?”
The first time I noticed this sign, probably on a trip home from the Aldi or from bein‘ over ta’ the Wal-Mart’s, I thought, “Holy typo.”
I figured this church is struggling for cash. When the deacon or whoever got back from the Signprinter’s
and realized the mistake, they didn’t have the money to do a re-print.And yet…
- It’s so far off the mark ….maybe it’s not a typo?
I mean, something about that curly Q in place of the “C” seems purposeful to me.
So here are other potential theories:
A) There is some kind of alternative movement in Macomb that I am just not hip and young enough to know about. The members of the movement have a great collective sense of humor and the use of “Maqom” is supposed to be like….using the word “rawk” for rock-n-roll.
And yet there’s that whole fact that it’s in front of a church…
B) It is the church’s attempt to draw in the youth through “hip” use of Kwik-e-Mart grammatical grossness. Some of the elders sat around at church council and said, “Hey, I know! Let’s spell it with a Q! And leave off the B! And we could use ‘Rite’ and ‘Nite‘ in really cool ways too!”
C) Is it not referring to Macomb at all, but instead a word from some ancient or perhaps African language.
D) Some other and better theory (which you should leave in the comments section below)?
- Now, let’s move onto larger questions.
Namely:
A) seriously what is this place?
B) Why is this Church of Maqom “restored“?
The placement, er, rather propped-up-ed-ness, of the sign, leads me to think this is the latest incarnation of something that existed once before.
Is that indeed the case? If so, what happened to the first church?
C) Or
is the word “restored” some kind of denominational indicator (such as “Fresher! Now with more fundamental roots!”)?
If you’ve got better theories—or if you know the answers to any of these questions— please let me know.I simply can’t go to Aldi again without knowing the answer.
