There are moments when a city is called not to accelerate, but to reflect—on who it is and who it is becoming. Thanks-Giving Square has long embodied that pause, reminding Dallas that gratitude is not just personal, but civic. On May 7, the National Day of Prayer Luncheon brings that idea to life—offering a shared moment to gather, reflect, and reconnect with the values that hold a community together.

Join Thanks-Giving Square for a special evening with Utah Governor Spencer Cox on Monday, March 30, at 7:00 PM at SMU’s Crum Auditorium.

In recent years, we have heard much about emotional intelligence and social intelligence. We have learned the value of self-awareness, empathy, collaboration, and communication. These capacities matter. They make us better colleagues, neighbors, and leaders. But I have come to believe that Dallas—and our country—needs something deeper as well.

Dallas is a good city. I say that not as a slogan, but as a lived experience. I have seen it in airport waiting lines, DART trains, school auditoriums, in small businesses and big-hearted neighbors, in quiet acts of decency that never make the news. Dallas is vibrant, complicated, imperfect—and deeply, stubbornly good.

At Arlington Hall at Dallas’ Lee Turtle Creek Park, the Thanks-Giving Square Good City Salon on Feb. 23 centered on a question that feels increasingly urgent: What does it mean to be human in the age of artificial intelligence?

There’s a moment in every city when you realize it’s more than streets and schedules. It’s people crossing paths. Stories being exchanged. Possibilities quietly taking root.

Faye Lane is not just a storyteller—she is a civic weaver, someone whose life’s work gently stitches individual lives together through narrative, empathy, and shared humanity. A Texas-born, New York–based writer, performer, and motivational speaker, Faye’s work has taken her from beauty salons in small-town America to the stages of national stages and public radio.