had to. His internship at New York's St. Vincent's Hospital paid nothing. With his championship belt, he wrestled in big-ticket venues, like Madison Square Garden, against big-time opponents, like Everett "The Blonde Bear" Marshall, or three-time world champion, Angelo Savoldi. The matches took a toll on his body; he tore hip joints, fractured ribs. One night, The Terrible Turk's big toe scratched a scar like Capone's down the side of his face. The next morning at work, he had to wear a surgical mask to hide it. Twice Bonica showed up to the O.R. with one eye so bruised, he couldn't see out of it. But worst of all were his mangled cauliflower ears. He said ... posted on Apr 12 2016 (14,310 reads)

have no choice but to express their lives,” Anne Truitt wrote in her penetrating reflection on the crucial difference between being an artist and making art. This creative inevitability is at the center of artistic endeavor and has been articulated by a multitude of humanity’s most celebrated artists. “Every good artist paints what he is,” Jackson Pollock asserted in his final interview. So why, then, do we so readily reduce works of art to objects and commodities, forgetting that they are at heart transfigurations of lived human experience? My recent conversation with Amanda Palmer about patronage and the future of a... posted on Jun 26 2016 (12,388 reads)

If we say of law that "life comes from it," then where there is hurt, there must be healing. To the Navajo way of thinking, justice is related to healing because many of the concepts are the same. When a Navajo becomes ill, he or she will consult a medicine man. A Navajo healer examines a patient to determine what is wrong, what caused the illness, and what ceremony matches the illness to cure it. The cure must be related to the cause of the illness, because Navajo healing works through two processes: it drives away or removes the cause of illness and it restores the person to good relations in solidarity with his or her surroundings and self. Patients consult Navajo he... posted on Jun 30 2016 (22,972 reads)

that endorphins produced in singing can act to draw large groups together quickly. Music has also been linked to dopamine release, involved in regulating mood and craving behavior, which seems to predict music’s ability to bring us pleasure. Coupled with the effects on endorphins, music seems to make us feel good and connect with others, perhaps particularly when we make music ourselves. But music is more than just a common pleasure. New studies reveal how it can work to create a sense of group identity. In a series of ingenious studies, researchers Chris Loerch and Nathan Arbuckle studied how musical reactivity—how much one is affected by listen... posted on Jul 16 2016 (23,719 reads)

front of the nursing home as I pulled up. My chest tightened. The reality here is that people do not necessarily get better – they come here to die. Still, after visiting almost 6 months now, I have come to care for the residents. It always makes me sad when someone passes. Inside, I half expected there to be a rush of firemen or paramedics shouting, “Code blue” or “Clear the way!” but that is only on TV. Here, it is business as usual – all in a days work. Down the hall, Mr. Le was propped up on the sofa, his one foot in his wheel chair. He has good days and not so good, today was a sad one. I sat with him while he spoke to me in Vietnamese wit... posted on Jul 22 2016 (15,964 reads)

a story: A man has a burning question. He decides to seek out a famous Hasidic teacher, a man everyone says is the wisest person of his era. For a long time he walks by foot, carrying his question. He gets rained on; he gets hungry. He keeps walking. Finally, he arrives in the village where the teacher lives. The students, though, won't let him into the study house. How can this man's question be serious, when he has just arrived? They've been working for years to be found worthy of the teacher's attention. Finally, the man's question is stronger than his politeness. He breaks in, corners the teacher and asks, "What is the essence of truth?" The teach... posted on Aug 1 2016 (19,753 reads)

partnership in which both the patient and the care provider have something to offer in pursuit of the patient’s optimal health. The care provider embodies not only clinical knowledge, which is the result of his or her training, but also qualities not always associated with experts. These include curiosity, emotional support, collaboration, humor, and the ability to articulate options and alternatives without judgment. Patients are participants as well, offering knowledge of what has worked for them in the past, providing information that can't be quantified on a medical report, and finding meaning and purpose in their response to the challenges faced when confronted by illnes... posted on Aug 4 2016 (16,562 reads)

Sagar Kabra was a family medicine resident at Jan Swasthya Sahyog (JSS), an organization dedicated to serving the rural poor in Chhattisgarh, India. He was killed in a road traffic accident on May 9, 2016. In rural India, it is not uncommon for a person to pass before their time, their life cut short by the injustices of poverty, hunger, accident, and disease. Often these deaths go unnoticed, and the stories of these lives unheard. Sagar Kabra was familiar with this reality from his time working as a resident physician at Jan Swasthya Sahyog (JSS), an organization through which he and his colleagues provided healthcare to some of the poorest and most marginalized communities in India.... posted on Aug 5 2016 (18,765 reads)

voice. Some of my early influences and the people who encouraged me was my good friend Ingrid and the books on Franz Marc, Kandinsky, Basquiat and art history books that she would send me, as well as the art sections of newspapers clandestinely passed from inmate to inmate as passing newspapers here is illegal. For a long time, I spent my time dealing with difficult emotions within the space of my art. Most of it was filled with pain, anger and sadness and in no way could I say that the work would serve as balm or inspiration. It was simply my worst in image form. Then, after some years of this and after reading Alex Grey’s book The Mission of Art, I realized that art can be... posted on Aug 9 2016 (16,059 reads)

KINGSNORTH explores the ways we can improve our relationships with others at home, at work and with friends, by improving the way we communicate. 1. An intention for connection. Aim for a respectful and compassionate quality of connection, so that everyone can express themselves, be heard and understood. Trust that the connection is more important and more nourishing than being right, or even just having your say. Connection means to try to be open and stay in touch with what matters to the other person – and to yourself – in each present moment. 2. Listen more than you speak. We have two ears and one mouth – a reminder of what is important! Listening is... posted on Aug 20 2016 (178,094 reads)

lives. Many of these practices—from eating local to organizing collective art projects—come down to community, belonging, and social connection. These are what truly make us love where we live, which also means that we can learn to love nearly any place (or at least like it a little more). “More than anything else, relationships with people are what make you feel at home in your town,” Warnick writes. “So many of my Love Where You Live experiments had worked because they managed to make me like people in Blacksburg.” For example, Warnick made a commitment to buy and eat local, and she found herself joining a community-supported agriculture... posted on Aug 31 2016 (15,354 reads)

that exposure to nature brings substantial mental health benefits,” according to “Green Exercise and Green Care,” a report by researchers at the University of Essex. “Our findings suggest that priority should be given to developing the use of green exercise as a therapeutic intervention.” Among the benefits: improvement of psychological well-being; generation of physical health benefits by reducing blood pressure and burning calories; and the building of social networks. 2. In some cases, greening neighborhoods may help reduce domestic violence. In a Chicago public housing development, researchers compared the lives of women living in apartment buildings ... posted on Nov 14 2016 (18,959 reads)

an ugly blot on the landscape. Then one day he joined a man who was leaning over the railings looking down at the rubbish. Jonathan said “it’s horrible isn’t it”. They both stood there shaking their heads. Then the other man said “how about getting it for the community?.” Jonathan initially thought it was a crazy idea but somehow the seed got planted. “I tried to acquire the land for nothing – not surprisingly that didn’t work” (he laughs). It was owned by a property company. The freehold was sold to a residents’ block and the lease was too short to interest some potential contributors. “I was... posted on Sep 30 2016 (14,340 reads)

in children, so that it will translate into pro-environmental behavior down the road—and this research comes not a moment too soon. Why disaster talk doesn’t move us (and what does) Painting a disastrous portrait of the earth’s future often causes us to simply check out. The idea of destruction on such a massive scale can either be too difficult to contemplate or seem too out of our control to motivate action—especially action inconvenient to us, like walking to work or bringing our own bags to the grocery store. Psychological biases also play a role. When a problem seems distant or abstract, it can easily be pushed aside by more pressing, immediate c... posted on Nov 3 2016 (12,496 reads)

in favor of test-prep memorization, the library stepped in to supplement project-based creative arts learning. The term maker jawn comes from the learning environments known as Makerspaces, in which participants experiment with creative technology, and from the slang word jawn, which originated in Philly’s hip-hop scene and can take on the meaning of any noun in a sentence. The Free Library of Philadelphia chose it for the program’s title to suggest the range of work that youngsters could create, where nothing is off-limits. Supplied with iPads, power tools, a 3-D printer, hot-glue guns, paint and buckets of marbles, buttons and other knick-knacks, the pre... posted on Nov 10 2016 (10,851 reads)

someone, or mental subtraction, can be a useful tool in cultivating gratitude. Similarly, abstaining from something you enjoy may help you to savor it again when it is reintroduced. Perhaps, rather than a gratitude journal, you may want to keep a gratitude jar, a place to drop a few coins every time you have a grateful thought. As the jar fills, you will have a tangible offering for someone in need. Finally, we can be grateful for our opportunities to give as Mother Teresa was when she worked with the sick and dying in the slums of Calcutta. Her work allowed her the opportunity to grow and deepen her spirituality. Our opportunities to care for family members, to tend to th... posted on Nov 24 2016 (15,097 reads)

Florida, the “land of flowers” as he called it in his journal, and from there board a ship to South America. His immediate plan was to take the wildest and “least trodden” path he could find. “Folding my map,” he wrote, “I shouldered my little bag and plant press and strode away among the old Kentucky oaks.” A self-taught mechanical genius and trained botanist, Muir had been offered a lucrative partnership in an Indianapolis machine works and had been tempted to accept it, but at the risk of abandoning his lifelong dream of exploring the wilds of the Southern hemisphere. Only the clarity drawn from an accident six months earlier ... posted on Nov 22 2016 (20,774 reads)

and do a cheer before a 5:45 a.m. run in Manhattan, Aug. 7, 2015.Chantal Heijnen for NationSwell Back on My Feet is a program that uses running to help the homeless get their lives back on track. In addition to connecting participants with housing and jobs, Back on My Feet is founded on the notion that running can change a person’s self-image. Early morning exercise, three days a week, provides an outlet for pent-up emotions and starts to change the way someone thinks about hard work. If the concept seems hokey or contrived, the program’s numbers show that’s not the case. Back on My Feet’s program has reached 5,200 homeless individuals. They show up volun... posted on Nov 30 2016 (17,235 reads)

Mysterious B. Virdot “The year was 1933 and Christmas was just a week away. Deep in the trough of the Great Depression, the people of Canton, Ohio, were down on their luck and hungry. Nearly half the town was out of work. Along the railroad tracks, children in patched coats scavenged for coal spilled from passing trains. The prison and orphanage swelled with the casualties of hard times. “It was then that a mysterious “B. Virdot” took out a tiny ad in the Canton Repository, offering to help the needy before Christmas. All he asked was that they write to him and tell him of their hardships. B. Virdot, he said, was not his real name, and no one would ... posted on Dec 13 2016 (14,624 reads)

Sámi will probably identify it as a reindeer.” Reindeer herding is an iconic tradition practiced by the Sámi in the north, an area often referred to as Sápmi. Hunting and fishing are also common practices in Sámi communities, so Binnabánnaš will also have a fish sidekick named Ujujju. “We want [children] to like both of them and feel that we have covered everybody that is in Sápmi and all the Sámi people and what they work with and what they have in their communities,” said Runningen. More than 80,000 Sámi people call Northern Europe home and live across Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. They&rsq... posted on Dec 18 2016 (8,022 reads)