Graffiti in Morocco Tells a Story of Cultural Edification

Outside the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca there is a wall adjacent to the sidewalk that protects visitors from the crashing waves of the Atlantic coastline.  It’s a wall that gives visitors a place to sit, stand, walk, and even create art that expresses feelings they may be having about the world they live in.  When I visited this remarkable mosque yesterday, I too was awed by it’s granduer and art.  The large archways leading into the ornate 20 feet high wooden doors opened to tiled parkways where visitors can stand or kneel and pray.  People took pictures and enjoyed the enormity of the building and it’s surrounding grounds.  As we left, I saw a message written on the wall telling passersby this is the graffiti of Morocco.

There were various pictures painted but none stood out more to me than this one of the large black hand holding a white palm and then another smaller black palm.  What was meant by the graffiti artist by this statement?  I pondered it for awhile as I stood there still enjoying the cool Atlantic Ocean breeze and the bright sunshine.  What is the significance of the colors, the size of the hands, and the position?  Even now as I write this blog today, I am aware there are probably millions of meanings each of us could describe by this one statement.  In fact, there are probably over 7 billion meanings, one for each living human alive, that has meaning from this simple statement painted on the wall.

So what does it say to me?

I believe it is the artist rendering of the philosophy and practice I gave in July that can change the hatred in the world and bring us together as God intended man.  It is the rendering of CULTURAL EDIFICATION.

CULTURAL EDIFICATION:  The philosopy and practice of uniting, creating, and encouraging divirsity into human interactions to create a peaceful and harmonious world where love is the predominate emotion humans feel for one another.

When I see the larger black hand embracing the smaller white hand and then the white hand holding the much smaller black hand, I see the beginning of embrace, connection, and value mankind has for one another, regardless of skin tone, religion, language, geography, social class, gender, sexual orientation, or any other division of man.  Instead, I see the openness to embrace, celebrate, and encourage divirsity so that we can harmoniously live in peace.  The painting is the embodiment of CULTURAL EDIFICATION and our connected embrace is the beginning.