If you read our January newsletter, you know that I am much enamored of Toronto’s Poet Laureate Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, that lyric champion of Creative Cities. One of my favorite of his public addresses is “Civic Valentines,” which starts,

When one falls in love, one becomes credible; and so it is with a city when it falls in love with itself. It becomes credible, believable to itself. And it attracts. When a civic leader is in love with a city, he/she is listened to. He/she is credible. People know this: that the quality of life is initially and inevitably predicated by love. And prescriptions not fired by the passion for a town are useless. You cannot fool the instinct of people, all of whom recognize what they themselves aspire to—a passion for what is at stake.

This echoes the sentiments of another treasured Toronto resident, the late Jane Jacobs, whose favorite quote of mine comes from a 1993 magazine interview in Parabola.

You have to love your city and love the area you’re trying to improve, genuinely love it . . .

And so, this Valentine’s Day, as we go about the business of renewing our cities, of building our communities, of repairing our neighborhoods, may that spirit spring from our hearts that makes everything and everyone shine. May we see the sweethearts all around us. The grocery clerk who packs our bag. The neighbor who laughs about the weather. The baker who hands a free cookie. May we smile at the ordinariness and the wonder of it. May we be in love.

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Tina Nagai created the rich oil-chalk and newsprint illustration above as an eight-year-old student for the River of Words competition. It is featured in the opening to our book Works of Heart.

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