Another year has come to an end. I'm fond of the idea of self-reflection and quantification, although that's not something I readily do. It can be disconcerting at best. Every year comes with its own challenges and this one has been no exception.

Thus, instead of reflecting on 2011, and bulleting best and worst of lists, I will look to 2012. I have special interest as of late in things outside my comfort zone, and wonder how close I can come to those particular edges. This may be because of 2011 and its earlier friends 2010 and 2008, so now that I think about it, this is a form of reflection. We are the products of the past, collective and individual. When early explorers drew up original maps of the world, they used the term “here be dragons” to denote uncharted locations they considered dangerous. Thus, this is my wish for you, "Internet." May 2012 be the year you explore your own edges and find your dragons. Who knows, you may see me there.

(Full disclosure: This happens to be the Year of the Dragon, but this post is completely coincidental!)

My dearest friends, my most cunning of enemies…

Thus ends Movember…

For the last 30 days, myself and a group of brave men at Viewpoints (and others, throughout the world) adorned a curious outcropping of bristle upon our lips to raise awareness (and greenbacks, in the parlance of mustachioed men gone past) for men's cancer research and eradication.

And, I must say, I felt quite saucey…I was compelled to wear the finest of suits, sip only the priciest of cognacs, and smother my hair with only the greasiest of greases. But now, alas, the time has come to return to my slovenly ways, so I leave you, now, cruel world, less one mustachioed gentleman. Thank you to all who contributed to the cause, it is surely quite worthy…

And to my mustache, I say, arividerchi…

We shall meet again…

On September 24th, 2011, we celebrated my 36th Birthday at Cafe Ciao in the West Loop. It was an evening of music performances, toasts, artwork, and fine company. I will upload videos as I find time to edit them here within this post. As well, photos are linked below. It makes me truly blessed to have such wonderful people to share my life and passions with.

Here is the first video, my rendition of Jeff Buckley's Lover, You Should Have Come Over.

There will be more to come...

Lover You Should Have Come Over from Mark Mikunas on Vimeo.

Here is a link to the photo gallery.

This is an excerpt of the toast I gave at Mark and Alina's wedding:

For those of you who don't know me, I'm Alina's sister. For those of you who do know me, and were at my wedding, you know Alina gave an amazing speech. It will be hard to top...but I'll try. Of course, there was another great speech delivered by our Dad. He is here with us today in spirit because he wouldn't miss this day for the world.

Alina, you and I got off on the wrong foot. I was already suspicious about getting a baby sister and it didn't help when they forgot me at the hospital when I came to help pick you up. On top of that, you had no interest whatsoever in hanging out when you did come home. Always one to keep score, I asked our dad whom he loved more and he said, “That's like asking me to choose my left arm or my right arm.” I remember thinking that I, having in possession two arms of my own, had to love one more than the other.

However, as you got older and became a plump and adorable dark curly haired toddler who followed me around and copied everything I do, I'd say you grew on me and soon I'd give either of my arms for you. As we got older, it was hard to tell which one of us was older and more mature. I remember our parents leaving us alone to go on vacation and telling you, “Make sure she eats.” I always went to you for advice and you never let me down. I have no idea where you got that smart at 12. Later, when I went abroad after college, you handed me a letter to read on the plane. I liked your letter so much, I carried it around with me the entire trip, so that you'd think it came from the Dalai Lama.

Click here to read the entire toast...

And also, watch the slideshow I created for Mark and Alina as well...

Mark and Alinas Slide Show from Mark Mikunas on Vimeo.

I’ve had a minor epiphany a few nights ago when I’ve finally understood what it means to be independently wealthy. There are some many words and terms whose meaning we never truly know and subtleties make all the difference (that’s where GRE and other standardized tests get us, but that’s a whole other tangent). I’ve never given it much thought but assumed it was when you get an inheritance. The epiphany happened when two books I was reading converged in the most unlikely manner; The Millionaire Next Door and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. The former is a long term study on the habits and the makeup of typical US millionaires and the latter is, well, Jane Eyre. Jane is a governess and is a dependent. One of her co-servants is earning a larger salary by doing incrementally taxing labor. Her hopes are to earn enough so that she may be independent, which in this case means living a life sustained solely on the income she’s earned. The millionaire case study subjects achieve the exact same outcome by steadily earning, on average, modest salaries over the years but living well below their means. They accumulate their wealth and live off the interest earned. Their taxation is on but a small portion of their income (which comprises of their salary and the interest) and they are able to sustain their lifestyle even if a part of their income (i.e. salary) is suddenly taken out of the equation. They are independently wealthy because they don’t depend on their employer for their short term (and long term, if they’re lucky) livelihood.

I’ve never thought about it this way and it shifted my thoughts to the rise of the middle class, whose very core is apparently threatened, or so we hear at election time. I sometimes like to inhabit the old New York societies of Edith Wharton but obviously wouldn’t survive there well. Jane Eyre is my first foray into that era from the standpoint of a “dependent.” The roughly dual-class society had its major flaws. The wealthy inherited fortunes and their dependents earned salaries, generation over generation. The wealthy didn’t rely on personal merits to survive while their dependents had to offer skills for sustainability. In unfortunate matters of Lily Bart (House of Mirth), who came from the former class and dipped into dependency by relying on looks and wealthy society’s good will and charity. Her only option was to marry rich or continue to “sing for her supper.” She was torn between her desire for luxury and a relationship based on love and respect sans wealth. She, of course, came to a tragic Whartonian end. Reading this book in my early 20s chilled me as I was starting to learn to stand on my own two feet outside my parents’ home. I wondered what it would have been like to live the life in a dual class society without luck of good genes on my side.

Oh, but what a contrast between Lily’s character and Jane’s. It’s like comparing Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina to Pushkin’s Tatiana in Onegin. Karenina sacrificed her wealth, virtue, and life while Tatiana, though perhaps more naïve, becomes arguably one of the strongest female voices in literature written from a male point of view. Jane flees the promise of protection only wealth and marriage, albeit in less than ideal circumstances, could bring to a woman of her position and creates a modest life with a small salary which crosses into the “independent” realm. She is set up in her own living quarters and, while she depends on her teaching salary, she doesn’t have to rely on the wealthy class and thus has no dependency for room and board. I don’t think I’ve learned more from a fictional character (though being lost in the footnotes for hours, I wonder how fictional), than I have from Jane. A deeper study of the universal truths of the human core I haven’t encountered in a long time.

Industrial revolution, the rise of trade, democratization of education, and other historical factors made decisions that Jane and Lily had to make almost obsolete. The middle class (into which a large portion of society is segmented) is now in charge of their destinies, superficially at least. Oh, but how easy it is to mortgage our futures and our independence! The Millionaire Next Door features case study after case study of people earning enormous salaries and living paycheck to paycheck. The ones that look rich almost certainly aren’t. Not examining the very virtues and human weakness so understood by Pushkin, Bronte and Wharton, we approach dual class society closer than we’d ever imagine.