Hearts, not Swastikas

I walk most mornings. It's the only form of exercise I can do without taxing my bad shoulder. There's my usual route, which takes 30-40 minutes, my long route, which takes an hour and 10 minutes (I only do this once a week), and my Sunday route, which takes about 30 minutes.

On my usual route, I noticed a swastika drawn in white chalk on a brick wall a couple of weeks ago. I was appalled to see it - one, because it was outside an evangelical church, which I presume preaches love, and two, because I live in a peaceful area without gangs or skinheads (that I know of).

On one of my walks, I tried to erase the swastika with my rubber-soled sneaker, but I just smudged it a little. Every time after that, I would walk past it and think about how I could erase that evil sign.

I designed a little project. I went to Hipermas (Wal-mart in Costa Rica) and bought some white chalk. Chalk in Spanish is tiza. On my walk this morning, I stopped at the swastika, and took the chalk out of my pocket. I filled in the open lines and made them boxes, then inside the boxes I drew hearts.

Out of hatred comes love. I hope whoever drew the swastika will notice the change and leave it like that.