I want to love the city as my self. I want to care for the city – not just take her for granted.  I want to observe and think and feel and want for the city, as if she were a living person – because she is an extension of me and all the people who live within her as Gaia’s Reflective Heart.

   

I want to love the city as a whole, so that I can grasp her as an integrated whole system made up of massively interconnected sub-systems, each of which needs to be healthy in relation to all the other sub-systems. I want to become aware of the health of the city, just as I am aware of the health of my self.  I want to develop and use monitors of the city’s vital signs so that I can understand the city as a living system with complex, and interrelated sub-systems.

I want to love the external and internal life of the city, so that I can appreciate it through my powers of observation, but also through how the city reflects how I and others think, feel and desire about the city – how is the city an extension of all ourselves?  That means that I need to be able to be open to understand how other selves (people) in the city think, feel and want.

I want the city to love herself – to have a sense of pride in herself; to develop an ethic and set of values for how people choose to live together; to develop a vision for herself for tomorrow.  I want the city to understand she can choose to flourish, just as I can make choices for my self to flourish.

I want to love being an intentional city dweller.  I want to understand the part I play in a healthy city – as body, mind and soul.  I want to contribute the appropriate part of my resources to the city’s sustenance and health, not just through fair taxation, but through active participation in decision-making and voluntary contributions of time and skills. I want to support through voting, referenda and direct participation, the tough decisions that elected officials and city managers might need to make, in order for the city to be well.

I want to love my elected officials because they think, feel and want for the city in an integral way, so they can represent city thoughts, feelings and desires.  I want intentionally integral city managers and staff, to manage the processes of the city as a living system, so that she is healthy and balanced.

I want to love the upper levels of government (provincial/state and federal) because they value the city – because they know without her success, the success of the upper levels of government is undermined.  I want the upper levels of government  to translate their valuing of the city into political support and the resources that honour that value.

I love the city and I want the city to flourish, because if she flourishes, my peers will flourish and my self will flourish.  If the city suffers, some or all of my peers will suffer and my self will suffer.  The city is my self. The city shows her love for me in so many ways. And I love her as I love my greater Self.