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The Daily Triptych295 / 365

22 OCT 2026

Day 295

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's there are few.

Shunryu Suzuki · Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
A seated woman in darkness, her face and breast lit by a candle; a mirror returns a second flame, and she holds a skull beside discarded jewellery.

I · THE OBJECT · BRITISH MUSEUM

The Penitent Magdalen

French · c. 1625–1640 · Oil on canvas

A French painter sets Mary Magdalene before a candle and a mirror: two flames, a skull, discarded jewels, and a long look at what penance looks like in paint.

Enter lesson 6 MIN
A red laser beam shown as a narrow line of light traveling through darkness, demonstrating the tight collimation that distinguishes laser light from ordinary sources.

II · THE DISCOVERY · HISTORY OF SCIENCE

Laser

16 May 1960 · Physics · Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

Theodore Maiman's laser was switched on in May 1960. Within decades, the same principle was reading barcodes, cutting steel, and carrying phone calls through glass fibres.

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A young woman faces the viewer from a shallow, dim interior, pale face framed by a dark headdress, her expression steady and reserved against the quiet space around her.

III · THE WORK · ART HISTORY

Portrait of a Young Girl

Petrus Christus · 1470 · Oil on oak panel

Barely thirty centimetres high, this Early Netherlandish portrait places a young sitter in shallow, airy space and lets her look straight back, reserved and alert.

Enter lesson 6 MIN
Head-and-shoulders portrait of a man in a pinstriped baseball uniform with a dark cap, looking directly at the camera, stadium seating visible behind him.

IV · THE GAME · MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

Dick Allen

First Base · 3 September 1963 · 8 March 1942, Wampum, Pennsylvania

He made seven hits in his first ten games, none of them home runs. By the time he finished, he had three hundred and fifty-one, scattered across fifteen seasons and five different clubs.

Enter lesson 6 MIN

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