by Dr Mitchell Kalpakagian | Mr. Rat from the 'Wind in the Willows' is the happiest person, the best of friends, the most hospitable of hosts, and a wise man.
Read More »The ‘Still Point’: Cultivating Silence in a Numbing Inundation of Noise
by Dr. Mitchell Kalpakgian | The inundation of noise does not allow for reflection, recollection, contemplation, or an examination of conscience—all forms of thought that require silence...
Read More »How to Prevent Déjà Vu from Ruining Your Outlook
by Mitchell Kalpakgian | The French phrase “déjà vu” (already seen) carries a negative connotation. If something is déjà vu, it means that one has done something, been someplace, or had an experience that he does not want to repeat, revisit, or undergo again.
Read More »Glamor or Gratitude: Which Makes Us Happy?
In Kenneth Graham’s The Wind in the Willows Mr. Toad, the owner of Toad Mansion and the great traveler on the Open Road who is always on a new vehicle going to faraway places, cannot comprehend how Mr. Rat can find contentment in a simple cottage on the river where he dwells all year and never explores the wider world of new sights and foreign lands: “You surely don’t mean to stick to your dull fusty river all your life, and just live in a hole in a bank, and boat. I want to show you the world.”
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