The Mustard Seed Blog: How One Old Wall Became a Piece of Art

Before

This summer at DemoCrew Edmonton, we have been thinking a lot about the word “Solidarity” - what it means and how it has the power to change the face of poverty.

Most people are familiar with the word charity; we have been socialized to believe that charity is the answer, but what we’re starting to see more and more, is that charity does the opposite of empower. Charity says, “I’m up here on a mountain because I have money, and you are down there in the valley because you don’t. That means that I have the answers to your problems and I can fix you with my money.” But solidarity says, “I have some money and you don’t, but I also think you have things you could teach me, and I have things I could teach you. We learn together.” Solidarity empowers. It levels the mountains and the valleys so that all are equal, like the verse in Isaiah 40:4 “Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.”

The word “Solidarity” has many definitions, but the one I like best is this:

Solidarity is the degree and type of integration, shown by a society or group with people and their neighbors. It refers to the ties in a society that bind people to one another. – (thanks Wikipedia)

This week we had the opportunity at DemoCrew to voice our opinion of solidarity in a visible way. A neighbor invited us to paint a mural on his garage wall. Our visiting group, Sturgeon Valley Baptist Church offered to sponser the cost, and suddenly, an old wall in the back alley became a conversation topic - an act of solidarity as community members and residents started to rally around us offering opinions, encouragement and music to listen to while we worked.

One man even said, “We don’t live in the best neighborhood you know, but this just makes it so much nicer to live here.”

Another came to us, “I just want to have my name on this. I want to paint one brush stroke, because I want to be a part of something like this. Thank you for doing this.”

And yet another man came to us and said, “I can understand this. We are all humans, you and me, we have that in common. I love you because you are a human too. I. Love. You.”

The quote we chose to put on this mural says this:

“Solidarity does not assume that our struggles are the same struggles, or that our pain is the same pain, or that our hope is for the same future. Solidarity involves commitment, and work, as well as the recognition that even if we do not have the same feelings, or the same lives, or the same bodies, we do live on common ground.” – Sarah Ahmed

We are all Edmontonians.

But I think this mural also says something else. Beauty, although in the eye of the beholder, is something we can all connect to in some way regardless of our social standing. This mural says that even though we all come from different walks of life, we all deserve beauty. It says that solidarity is possible when we work together, even in a charity model driven world. We can be the change we want to see, and we are.