“Hi there Eve, fancy a tipple?  So what d’ya think the institute is all about?”

“I’ll try and make it simple for you Adam!  Reflection might be taken for granted as a mental process but it can be much more than a rote activity.  It can help  sharpen a perspective on our thinking and our lives.  We can be ourselves.. No need to try and cut out some of the things that make us human like faddish ‘Meditation’ with its roots in in the East.  There are wonderful traditions in the West; we just don’t sufficiently value them at the moment.”

“Go on!” 

“What you gotta do is pause a while and think calmly about what you think, and do. You may stop following several false hares that take you out of your truest path.  If you reflect on almost anything carefully enough you could surprise yourself.  Take scientific discoveries:  many ideas you dismiss as ‘Old Wives Tales’ –  why isn’t it ‘Old Husband’s Tales?’ – turn out to have a stronger probability of being right than much conventional wisdom.  A thing isn’t right just BECAUSE you can prove it in court!  Then there is Practical Wisdom.  Aristotle – and he was no slouch! – put it at the top of the tree of desirable virtues.  We can find self-fulfillment by not thinking about it but by doing something about it.”  

“Okay, lets get out of this noisy pub and go for some quiet in our own sanctuary. It’ll make us happier, more useful, more in touch with ourselves and…the best is yet to comer!”