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Don’t let the zombies get you down

First, what the heck is a zombie? From Google and Dictionary.com:

zom·bie

noun

noun: zombie; plural noun: zombies

1. 1.

a corpse said to be revived by witchcraft, especially in certain African and Caribbean religions.

• (in popular fiction) a person or reanimated corpse that has been turned into a creature capable of movement but not of rational thought, which feeds on human flesh.

“a world overrun by zombies”

• INFORMAL

a person who is or appears lifeless, apathetic, or completely unresponsive to their surroundings.

• PHILOSOPHY

a hypothetical being that responds to stimulus as a person would but that does not experience consciousness.

• a computer controlled by another person without the owner’s knowledge and used for sending spam or other illegal or illicit activities.
• 2.

a tall mixed drink consisting of several kinds of rum, liqueur, and fruit juice.

Not a bad definition. Odd how we got to the infected zombies when this is the defintion of zombies, but, that is another blog post, about the history of zombies, not a blog post about not letting zombies get you down.

You may not know this, but Abbi Grasso loves zombie lore. As a quick look around popular culture in the last few decades suggests, much of modern society likes zombie lore too, with a steady and rapid increase since the 1960’s

Actually, I really don’t know how you know anything about Abbi Grasso, much less my passionate attitude about zombies so let’s make sure it’s clear- Abbi Grasso loves zombie lore, movies, stories, games, books, shows, movies…If it has zombies in it, she at very least, wants to check it out.

Abbi Grasso likes zombies more than she likes talking in third person.

Abbi Grasso isn’t alone in her love of zombies, either. Plenty of gamers kill zombies in Call of Duty, Left 4 Dead, Resident Evil, and The Last of Us, enjoying themselves for hours. Plenty more watch The Walking Dead, and HBO has shown impressive numbers for the big “Battle of Winterfell” featuring tons of wights and White Walkers, which are, technically, a form of zombies. Plenty of people like Abbi love Zombieland, Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Land of the Dead…People, not just nerds like Abbi, love zombie culture.

No, really, all Meta third person jokes aside, I have always thought zombie stories were interesting, and when I realized that in many zombie stories, the story isn’t the zombie, per se, but is actually normally a story about social or economic issues, I was a fan for life. Zombie stories are frequently just used to showcase humanity at its worst or finest.

Some people make the zombies themselves issues. Zombies aren’t the issue, humans doing the same thing expecting or hoping for different results, is.

Zombies aren’t the issue, economic class wars bubbling under the surface, are.

Zombies aren’t the issue, racism is.

Zombies aren’t the issue, fascism is. (Okay, so, full disclosure, Nazi Zombies is a real thing in LOTS of the culture, but again, the fascism is the issue, zombies just serve the function.)

Zombies aren’t the issue, global warming is.

So, lets talk about the definition of a zombie, and work at getting towards the theme of today’s post:

Don’t let the zombie’s get you down!

So, what is a zombie? We began this discussion with a definition, so let’s visit that.

First- A corpse, normally reanimated with witchcraft. Popular in African and Caribbean cultures. Pretty awesome, sometimes the corpses answer to the person who raise them, sometimes not.

Other examples of zombies include someone who is unresponsive to the outside world, think someone who is so zoned into a game or book that they do not notice anything else, or someone so tired, shocked, or grief stricken, to respond.

The example we will probably spend a bulk of this blog discussing are the zombies who does not experience true consciousness.

In this definition, let’s walk around a bit.

So many people are content with going through their day to day lives in the grind. In the rat race.

People who are happy being mean to fellow humans, all to get ahead for a moment. People who will never dare chase their dreams, hell, some have forgotten their dreams, more still never had them.

A zombie wants to eat brains, consume, but never contribute, never create. Destroy, eat, tear apart anything good, pure, productive, or just plain awesome.

Zombies want to destroy you, your mood, your energy, your vibe, your entire being. They want to destroy you with boring meetings, tedious emails, mean phone calls, disgusting racism, overbearing sexism, devastating bullies, ill prepared bosses, micromanaging morons, and many more. These zombies want to destroy you by stealing your work, ideas, thoughts…They want to destroy you by ruining your time, your mood, your area. They want to destroy everything around you, and worst of all, many of them don’t even know why they want to destroy these things…they just do it, like the mindless automaton zombies they are.

Just like when zombies are bloated from eating brains, but still chase after survivor stupid enough to make any noise.

Some zombies don’t even need food to continue, some will continue, never stopping until completely disintegrated. These zombies don’t need food but still love to rip apart bodies, and the zombies in our lives are no different.

Sometimes, like “boss battle” zombies, they even mean to destroy everything. They have special skills, special abilities, and what feels like a special driving desire to destroy you. Sometimes, they want to destroy your entire being, your day, your mood…Sometimes they are the truly terrible zombies that know they are zombies, and gleefully hunt down survivors, with no memory or regard for their human selves. These zombies, like all zombies, suck.

These zombies, like the zombies of movies, games, shows, comics…all represent something bigger.

A failure to dream.

A failure to push for more.

A failure to eradicate bad ideologies, like racism or rampant pollution, from our way of thinking, and from our collective accepted society.

A failure to grow as a person, or as a society.

These zombies that try to destroy us, to steal our joy, our “shine”, these zombies are basically everything that is wrong with our society, in one way or another.

Doesn’t matter if it is a 28 Days Later zombie, running faster than anyone can comprehend, intent on just beating you to death.

Or a slow moving zombie that can still overwhelm you and kill you in a horde that rips open your flesh while slowly feasting on your slowly dying corpse, while you scream for help, but the other survivors have already said “oh no” and ran away.

Zombies suck, and you should avoid them at all costs. Or double tap those headshots, just to be safe. But, as that you can’t avoid everyone, and the later idea probably sounds more like murder than an upbeat solution to dealing with zombies, real or metaphorical, how about we look at solutions to the metaphorical zombies in our lives?

You can avoid zombies, and in real life you can try to avoid making plans with people who always make you feel bad. You may not be able to avoid your boss, but you can take walks on your lunch break to get away from him. Or, find a new job and quit, which is a more legal way to double tap a zombie in your life.

You can find new friends, cut out toxic family, find better jobs, better neighbors, a better city. You can actively seek out a better life, away from zombies. When you find zombies that have “snuck past the gates” avoid them or double tap. Sometimes the double tap is simply removing yourself. You don’t always destroy a zombie, sometimes you simply just remove yourself, but they are also not actually zombies eating your brain, if they were, you would be able to bash their skulls in.

Perspective matters with these little analogies.

As I mentioned earlier, zombie stories are a passion of mine, and avoiding zombies is a lifestyle of mine. I plan on expanding on this theory a bit, to expand on the “Don’t let the Zombie’s get you down” idea, with the various types of zombies in both stories and life, and how to deal with them, in future blog posts.

In the meantime, however, keep in mind some simple truths about zombies.

They aren’t too smart; you can normally avoid them by being careful. The ones you can’t avoid, wear thick clothing so they can’t bite.

Don’t get infected. Some people may be immune to zombie, but don’t risk it by getting bit. Stay as far out of their reach as possible, they can still tear your body apart, immune to their ‘infection’ or not. Last thing you want is to be a zombie with no limbs, infecting more poor saps. Never let the zombies win.

Help other survivors. Don’t leave people behind if you can avoid it. Sure, if someone is literally gutted, don’t try and save a corpse, that thing is going to reanimate soon anyways, but if someone is cornered, maybe try and save them. There is safety in numbers, and humans will never beat the zombies if we keep letting them kill, or worse, infect other humans, losing more humans, and gaining more zombies who may try and hurt you. Defend your fellow humans when zombies are attacking them- in every way.

Most importantly, remember that we all deal with zombies, and we all have a choice.

We can either give in to the “infection” or we can fight it. Therefore, I always say, don’t let the zombies get you down. If you let a zombie affect your mood, you start to let them win. When you fight that, when you stop letting them win. Don’t let the zombies get you down. We are all going to fight them, we are going to win.

If all else fails, look to the last part of the definition. The cocktail, “Zombie” is pretty good. Cannabis also works. Everything in moderation, though, we need you to get back at it tomorrow, to fight the good fight, and help keep zombies from getting us all down.

Don’t let the zombies get you down.

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❤

Abbi

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