The central teachings of the Buddha are called the Four Noble Truths. The first of these truths is that ordinary existence is suffering. The second is that suffering is caused by ignorance and craving. The third is that suffering can be transcended. And the fourth Noble Truth is the way and means to transcend suffering, which is The Noble Eightfold Middle Path: Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration.

Sumi-e (墨絵) is a traditional East Asian ink painting style that uses black sumi ink dissolved in water to capture the “spirit” of a subject rather than a photographic likeness. Introduced to Japan by Zen monks, it relies on minimalism, spontaneity, and fluid brushstrokes. It is normally monochromatic.

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference. The “Serenity Prayer” is widely attributed to the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. But it may have actually been written by Winnifred Wygal who studied with Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz is a self-help book based on ancient Toltec wisdom that offers a code of conduct for personal freedom, happiness, and love by breaking self-limiting beliefs. The four agreements are: Be impeccable with your word, Don’t take anything personally, Don’t make assumptions, and Always do your best. The book explains that our lives are shaped by agreements we make with ourselves, others. society as a whole, and God, and by following these four principles, we can transform our lives.

TV show (1973 – 1978) Kojak centered on Lieutenant Theo Kojak, a tough, bald, and incorruptible New York City police detective known for his fondness for lollipops and his catchphrases “Who loves ya, baby?” and “Cootchie-coo!”. The series followed Kojak and his squad as they tackled various crimes, often with Kojak’s unique methods and sharp wit. The show also highlighted Kojak’s Greek heritage, which was shared by the actor, Telly Savalas

Henry David Thoreau (2016). Walden. Macmillan Collector’s Library Thoreau, born July 12, 1817  and died May 6, 1862, was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. [2]  A
leading transcendentalist, [3]  he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay “Civil Disobedience” (originally published as “Resistance to Civil Government”), an argument in favor of citizen disobedience against an unjust state.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 American legal drama crime film directed by Robert Mulligan,
starring Gregory Peck and Mary Badham. Adapted from Harper Lee’s 1960 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the film follows lawyer Atticus Finch in Depression-era
Alabama educating his children against prejudice while defending a black man who is falsely charged with the rape of a white woman. It is widely considered to be one of the greatest movies ever made.

Anatomy of a Murder is a 1959 American legal drama film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Wendell Mayes was based on the 1958 novel of the same name written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker under the pen name of Robert Traver. Voelker based the novel on a 1952 murder case in which he was the defense attorney. In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Inherit the Wind is a 1960 American drama film directed by Stanley Kramer and based on the 1955 play of the same name written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. It stars Spencer Tracy as lawyer Henry Drummond and Fredric March as his friend and rival Matthew Harrison Brady. Inherit the Wind is a parable that fictionalizes the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial as a means to discuss McCarthyism. [5]  Written in response to the chilling effect of the McCarthy era investigations on intellectual discourse, the film (like
the play) is critical of creationism.

Judd, for the Defense was an American legal drama that aired from 1967 to 1969. The show starred Carl Betz as Clinton Judd, a high-priced Houston lawyer who travels the country taking on challenging cases. Each episode presented a new legal battle, often exploring contemporary and sometimes controversial social issues.

Gloria Marie Steinem (born March 25, 1934) is an American journalist and social-political activist who emerged as a nationally recognized leader of second-wave feminism in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She is a trailblazer for women’s rights.

Bella Abzug (July 24, 1920 – March 31, 1998), nicknamed “Battling Bella”, was an American lawyer, politician, social activist, and a leader in the women’s movement. In 1971, Abzug joined other leading feminists such as Gloria Steinem, Shirley Chisholm, and Betty Friedan to found the National Women’s Political Caucus.

Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg (March 15, 1933 – September 18, 2020) [2]  was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2023. Ginsburg spent much of her legal career as an advocate for gender equality and women’s rights, winning many arguments before the Supreme Court. She advocated as a volunteer attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union and was a member of its board of directors and one of its general counsel in the 1970s. In the fall of 1956 (the year I was born), Ruth Bader Ginsburg enrolled at Harvard Law School, where she was one of only 9 women in a class of about 500 men. The dean of Harvard Law, Erwin Griswold, reportedly invited all the female law students to dinner at his family home and asked the female law students, including Ginsburg, “Why are you at Harvard Law School, taking the place of a man?” When her husband took a job in New York City, that same dean denied Ginsburg’s request to complete her third year towards a Harvard law degree at Columbia Law School, so Ginsburg transferred to Columbia and became the first woman to be on two major law reviews: the Harvard Law Review and Columbia Law Review. In 1959, she earned her law degree at Columbia and tied for first in her class. I say, Hurrah for Ginsburg!

The most famous line and often cited phrase from John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem “Maud Muller” written in 1854. It was first published on December 28, 1854, in The National Era.

Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book, pg. 152

In ancient Greek mythology, the gods punished a king named Sisyphus for betraying Zeus. He was condemned to push an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity. Through the classical influence on contemporary culture, tasks that are laborious, futile, and never-ending are therefore described as Sisyphean

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference. The “Serenity Prayer” is widely attributed to the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. But it may have actually been written by Winnifred Wygal who studied with Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

Hell’s Kitchen is a neighborhood on the West Side of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Hell’s Kitchen had long been a bastion of poor and working-class Irish Americans. Its gritty reputation has several explanations for its origin. An early use of the phrase appears in a comment Davy Crockett made about another notorious Irish slum in Manhattan, Five Points. According to the Irish Cultural Society of the Garden City Area: When, in 1835, Davy Crockett said “In my part of the country, when you meet an Irishman, you find a first-rate gentleman; but these are worse than savages; they are too mean to swab hell’s kitchen,” he was referring to the Five Points. But it stuck to my neighborhood.

Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh painted a self-portrait in oil on canvas in
September 1889. The work, which may have been Van Gogh’s last self-portrait, was painted shortly
before he left Saint-Rémy-de-Provence in southern France. The painting is now at the Muséed’Orsay in Paris. This self-portrait was one of about 32 produced over a 10-year period. I was so captivated by the portrait that I copied it to canvas. I was fascinated by the brush strokes and the colors and the light. I was a teenager. I regret that I left it behind at a high school in Upper Montclair NJ. So it goes.

Long Day’s Journey into Night is a play in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O’Neill in 1939–1941 and first published posthumously in 1956. [5]  It is widely regarded as his magnum opus and one of the great American plays of the 20th century. [6]  It opened on Broadway in November 1956, winning the Tony Award for Best Play. O’Neill received the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Drama posthumously for Long Day’s Journey into Night. The work is openly autobiographical in nature. The “long day” in the title refers to the setting of the play, which takes place in a single day in August 1912. The setting is Monte Cristo Cottage, the seaside home of the Tyrones in Connecticut. The four main characters are the semi- autobiographical representations of O’Neill, his older brother, and their parents, including his father actor James O’Neill. The play portrays a family struggling to grapple with the realities and consequences of each member’s failings. The parents and two sons blame and resent each other for various reasons; bitterness and jealousy serve as proxies for ultimately failed attempts at tenderness and compassion. The family’s enduring emotional and psychological stress is fueled by their shared self-analysis, combined with articulate honesty. The story deals with addiction, unfulfilled dreams, moral flaws, and the struggle of family relationships.

The Bell Jar is the only novel written by the American writer and poet Sylvia Plath. the novel is
supposedly semi-autobiographical with the names of places and people changed. The book is often
regarded as a roman à clef because the protagonist’s descent into mental illness parallels Plath’s
experiences with what may have been clinical depression or bipolar II disorder. Plath died by suicide a month after its first United Kingdom publication. It published in the United States until 1971 and became an instant best seller, and has since been translated into nearly a dozen languages. She wrote in her journal.

Google AI tells us: While the specific “7 types of hope” can vary depending on the source, common themes and categories often include realistic hope, generalized hope, utopian hope, hope that believes anyway, hope enhancing faith and love, hope that is more than wishing, and transcendent hope. These categories highlight different aspects of hope, from practical goal-oriented hope to hope rooted in faith and a broader perspective. And there you have it.

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride” is a proverb and nursery rhyme, first recorded about 1628 in a collection of Scottish proverbs, which suggests if wishing could make things happen, then even the most destitute people would have everything they wanted.