About BEAUTY

I look into the veiled gazes of most of my patients and those I see as they pass through the city wrapped in scarves and festooned with weapons. I look for a spark in their faces and find none. I look for a glimmer of inner beauty and I don’t see it, maybe that beauty is stored somewhere very deep, where no one can see.

Do these people who grow up in a world of cruelty, revenge and violence also experience beauty? Do they know the beauty of flowers in a vase, well-groomed happy women, the beauty of music, dance, or paintings? Could they ever see the beauty of rose beds, well-kept parks, colorful robes of dancers or a decorated mosque? I don’t know, it’s quite possible that they never experienced any of it.

It is hard to find beauty in Mokka.

Blue skies are beautiful, sunrises and sunsets are beautiful, children’s happy faces are beautiful – until someone maims them or their family.

If there was more beauty in Mokka, would there be more compassion?

Maybe yes. Because Beauty soothes, heals wounds and warms the heart. After all, it is not for nothing that we often have tears in our eyes when we look at a breathtaking sunset.

I wish the sky in Mokka would at least remain so beautifully blue and the sun wouldn’t lose its purple veil at sunrise and sunset.

Posted on February 11, 2023