32. Robert Indiana, LOVE
Thy neighbor as thyself
For all its frivolity, Valentine’s Day speaks to genuine human longing, which itself speaks to how hard it is in practice to truly love—and how nearly impossible to love our neighbors as ourselves. And yet we know how urgent that work is. Little else matters.
When William Penn named Philadelphia after the ancient city whose name meant “brotherly love,” it announced a radical experiment in governance—primarily religious tolerance, unlike other English colonies. Penn himself had spent eight months in the Tower of London for his Quaker faith. He believed a better society was possible.
But throughout its history, Philadelphia has demonstrated how difficult brotherly love is to achieve; the city almost immediately fell short of its mission. Still, it kept the name. That might seem naïve or Pollyannaish, but it’s probably something stranger and more honest—keeping the name despite the record. Refusing to rename it “City of Trying to Love But Mostly Failing.”
Philadelphia was not the first city to get a Robert Indiana LOVE sculpture (that was Indianapolis), but the famous three-dimensional text is most closely associated with Philly. The statue is beloved in the city partly because it’s sentimental, but also because it is a monumental, public reminder of the wager embedded in Philadelphia’s name. Tourists line up to pose with the four stacked letters, performing belief in an ancient idea: if we look at people attentively and without judgement, we see our own lives and struggles mirrored in their faces. Our neighbors as ourselves.
Special thanks to Tom McDonald for suggesting Robert Indiana’s LOVE sculpture.
Links:
“LOVE (Sculpture),” by Charlene Mires, The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia (Rutgers University), 2018
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This post is part of The American 250, a series featuring 250 words on 250 objects made by Americans, located in America, in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary. Through December 31, 2026.
I’m looking for ideas for this series — have something you’d like me to consider for inclusion? Please feel free to leave a comment!
Purrfect for the day and all Time....thank you.....
Fabulous! Thank you for your reflections and research on this! Love! 🫶