Zombies! They are everywhere! Not literally, of course. I mean in entertainment. For some crazy reason our society has been on a zombie kick for a while. If you want to make a show that will bring in money no matter how low budget, make a zombie show. People can’t seem to get enough. Personally, I haven’t joined the bandwagon and I don’t get the hype. However, the zombie craze phenomena has made me think. I’ve been wondering what draws us to that subject so much. Why is it so insatiable?
There are many theories out there. One of them that I heard about is that as primal beings we are simultaneously drawn in by and repulsed by violence. We have to avoid it to preserve our lives but there are times when we have to embrace it to survive. The theory is that in a “zombie state” the people are beyond saving. They are dehumanized enough that it is easier for us to justify watching violence against another person.
I have another theory. Zombie shows are all about the people who have somehow not been turned into zombies and are trying to survive against a horde of living dead. I wonder if maybe it is a symbol of our own existence. As a society we are slowly becoming more sick, more mindless,more pathetic creatures who live only for consumption. Those may be harsh words but they are motivating! On the other hand, something inside of us knows that we aren’t meant to live like this. Deep down we know that we have more potential. We know we have a mission in life to fulfil besides sitting in a chair all day memorizing meaningless facts and then coming home and staring at a screen, and eating nothing but junk. The zombie survivors are a symbol of this part of us that is fighting a seemingly impossible battle with the outer zombie and is desperate to live. My theory may be wrong, but it is food for thought. (Insert witty pun about eating brains.)
Regardless of why we are obsessed with zombies,one thing is certain: we all want to survive the zombie apocalypse. I know many people who genuinely think that they could survive a real life zombie apocalypse. They have food and water stored away, a wide variety of deadly weapons, ammunition, and off road vehicles that can take them out of the cities in a pinch, and other useful survival skills. Don’t get me wrong, I think having food storage and some basic survival skills are great, but there is one big item they are all missing. Nobody ever talks about how to NOT become a zombie in the first place! All the big guns in the world won’t do you any good if you’re one of the first to become a zombie!
I was recently talking to a friend of mine whose kids are very active. They love sports and are constantly outside playing soccer, jumping on the trampoline, or even trail running with their mother. However, when it was time to go to school they would fight it. They hated school. After considerable deliberation my friend decided to take her boys out of the public school system. She said that the main reason was that six hours a day of sitting in class was draining their energy. She saw their need to be in motion and pulled them out so they can move more. “I no longer have zombies as kids because we are moving all the time.”
In my own children, I see it after they have screen time. They get glued to the screen in a second and then when it’s over, they mope around, whine, and want nothing to do with real life. We also find that if they spend the whole day inside the house then they have a hard time when evening comes around. Our lives are much easier if they move and get outside time.
That begs the question: If kids need constant movement and outside time so much, do adults? I think we do, and I think that we are just better at hiding the effects.
So next time you start feeling numb and void of energy then get up, turn off the devices, get outside, and move! It doesn’t matter what you do or what the weather is like. You don’t have to do rigorous or structured exercise. Just buck up and get out there. The very act of being in nature inspires movement. Take some time to pay attention to how you feel. And if, somehow, you wake up and find that 90% of the people in the world want nothing but to eat your brains, you’ll at least have the mobility and energy to outrun them!