failure makes us whole

i was reading a book a few days ago, and an observation the author made struck me. she said, and i paraphrase, “failure is what makes life whole.”

the idea that failure makes life a complete cycle was a little startling to me, since i’d always assumed that we should never accept failure. but failure teaches us to let go; to breathe; to appreciate what we still have. and then, we are free to succeed without the stress of worry or anxiety.

i’ve also been impressed by some of the teachings of buddhism, especially mahayana buddhism. letting go of material attachments, as well as breaking with the emotional investments we sometimes put into things, can free us to see the world as it really is. it can bring so much peace and simplicity to our lives. the less stuff we have, the less complicated our schedules, the less emotion we allow to run rampant in our daily activies–the better.

City Animals – A Primer

One thing I have been missing while living in the city is wildlife. I usually saw many different small ground animals around my yard in the suburbs, such as squirrels, rabbits, hedgehogs, and the occasional coyote. However, I have come to realize that in the city, it’s not that there are no animals, it’s that they are of a different sort. Let me give you two examples:

1) The exercise-junkie rabbit. This active-lifestyle-living bunny showed up to our Army ROTC morning workout while we were in a huge circle stretching. He ran into the middle of our circle and began running around the inside of the circle, doing laps. When he got tired, he darted out through someone’s legs and headed home for a quick shower and energy carrot.

2) The urban sophisticate squirrel. I spotted this hipster on my walk to the Caribou down the street. He undoubtedly was judging me for purchasing coffee at a franchised coffee shop. When I saw him, he was most likely coming back from his favorite over-priced, locally-owned, organic coffee place. He was well-dressed, sporting a shiny new coat, and had a kind of swagger in his step.

These two gave me much-needed examples of the differences between city animals and their less developed country counterparts.

That is all. Nos vemos!

Nate

running in the rain!

For those of you who don’t know, I’m in Army ROTC here at UIC. It’s been really fun so far, as well as a lot of hard work(outs). Today we participated in the 9/11 Freedom Run in Barrington, IL. Most of us did the 9.11km run, which was supposed to be 5.6 miles but it seemed that the race organizers had a hard time converting between km and mi so we ended up only running 4.6 miles. Some cadets competed in a rucksack march (30-40 lb packs, full uniform).

It was raining slowly but steadily for most of the morning, so I wore my raincoat during the run. I was glad I did when halfway through it started raining even harder. But rain on a long run feels amazing because you don’t have to wipe away sweat (you’re drenched anyway) and you stay cool. The course was pretty hilly but I managed a good solid 8:31 pace to finish in 40:51. Surprisingly, I felt great afterwards, with none of the post-race misery period I usually experience. So either the rain really helped or I’m just getting in really good shape because of ROTC. Or both. Either way, it was great to see how many people came despite the rain to show their support for the troops. All in all, a good day.

Chicago is awesome

I’m currently on vacation in Michigan with  my family, and on the way up here we drove through a college town. We stopped at a gas station and I went inside. In the gas station was a group of college girls from the dorm across the street, and they were getting very excited about the gas station’s great selection of snackage. I had to snicker a bit, but then I felt sorry for them when I realized how lucky I am. The dorm I live in is literally in  between Maxwell St. and Taylor St., which as you may know are two of the most famous streets in Chicago for great food. Also, Greektown is a 5-minute walk away, and I’ve already had a chance to try the amazing Greek food there. Not to mention the fact that downtown Chicago is a short L ride away, with all its great restaurants (including one of my favorites – Ed Debevic’s). Also the fact that from my dorm’s living room I can see the Sears tower and on the walk to my classes I have a great view of most of the skyline, while these girls had a great view of…a Marathon gas station. I am incredibly lucky to be going to UIC.

Switching gears completely, some of the music I’ve been listening to lately is really interesting. There’s an artist called Pogo who uses small pieces of sound from different movies and whatnot and makes music out of them. It’s really good, and he has a ton of free downloads of his music. Check it out at http://www.last.fm/music/Pogo.

I’ll periodically mention a new artist or genre I’m listening to, most likely at the end of a different post that has absolutely nothing to do with music. You’ll get used to it though.

‘Til next time,

Nate

Stealing Jeff’s Idea…kind of

Hey everybody! For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Nate Mullins. I’m a student at University of Illinois at Chicago, and I am majoring in English. I used to blog sometimes, but to be honest I typically thought of it as a rather dorky thing to do. But then my friend Jeff (http://lifeatuic.blogspot.com) started a blog documenting his experiences here at UIC. And it actually wasn’t too bad. In fact, it was actually readable! So I thought I’d steal his idea and write my own. Well, actually, I’ve had this blog for a long time, but I never had an audience for it. So anyway, while I might not do it as stylishly or write with quite such a sense of the debonair as Jeff, I’ll certainly try.

There won’t be a particular focus for this blog, because as those who know me will tell you, I tend to be kind of random. I will tell you a little bit about life here at UIC, but for the most part I’ll leave that to Jeff. I’ll just write about my thoughts, opinions, my tastes in music and movies, and things like that.

One last thing so I don’t bore you to death. You’re probably wondering about the title of this blog. I am taking a class this semester entitled “Introduction to Russian Cinema” and last week we were watching a film in which the main male actor had very large, expressive eyes, wore a ton of guyliner, and stared moodily into the distance for minutes at a time. So as I was watching this film I was trying to come up with a good description of him, and I ended up thinking “it’s like if Bambi did meth and sang in an emo band.” I honestly can’t remember where the meth part came from, but it was still really funny.

Yup…that’s all for now!

–Nate