Why The Walking Dead Is Awesome

The Walking Dead is one of the most popular series on television, as well as being among the most critically acclaimed. There’s something to be had for everyone… terrifying, rotting zombies, blood, gore, action, heroes, villains, and beautiful women; to say nothing of top-notch writing, artful directing, and richly drawn characters.

You will often get well-wrought metaphors as a part of that mix. Sword-wielding Michonne had been separated from her group and was walking amongst the zombies with her two “pets”... a couple walkers she had rendered harmless through a few strategic swipes of her sword. She encounters a walker that is a mirror image of herself (violent content warning on this one).

Michonne’s fear and anger bubble to the surface, then burst out. She had realized that she was, for all practical purposes, one of the walking dead at that point. She was wandering the countryside among the zombies, keeping pace with them, as if they were her new group of comrades. Something snapped, catalyzed by the sight of her zombie “twin”, and she realized she simply couldn’t go on like that anymore. She had to be human again.

A recent episode (shown March 15th, 2015) played with the theme of courage versus cowardice. I won’t spoil any of the plot points, but suffice to say, the theme played out in a very a very stark fashion, in such a way that the episode didn’t end well for everyone.

What speaks to me the most about The Walking Dead is that it is, ultimately, a survival story. Hope is given, then taken away. People die, often unexpectedly and horribly. Good people are forced to do terrible things in order to survive. Some manage to find the better, nobler parts of themselves as they walk this post-apocalyptic landscape. Others become the basest sort of human. The core group of the show… Rick, Carl, Daryl, Michonne, Carol, etc… have bonded together as a de facto family; each watching out for the other, relying on one another for the courage that only comes from hope. The other side of that coin is where you’ll find someone like The Governor. This is a man who, as far as I can tell, was a family man and more or less a faceless corporate drone pre-apocalypse, but quickly transformed into a wrathful autocrat in order to survive. The central lesson of the series (in my view at least) is that it is possible to retain hope, nobility, and courage even in the darkest and most dire of circumstances while finding the better part of yourself.

The Zombie Apocalypse Is Upon Us. Sort of.

"A true Zombie is nothing more than an unconscious being apathetically and lifelessly lumbering across the planet buying and consuming everything in it's path, unsatisfied, unfulfilled, anxious and unstill." -Judith Froemming

There was a story all over the news a few weeks ago... it was about a man in Miami who was caught eating someone’s face off.  The story went viral and was all over social media, and many of the comments suggested that this was the onset of the “zombie apocalypse”.  Maybe not so much.  It turns out that the alleged “zombie” was high on a synthetic drug colloquially known as “bath salts”.

So no, the world will not soon resemble an episode of “The Walking Dead”.  Having said that, I do think there is a zombie apocalypse of sorts that has come upon us.  No, I don’t think a slow-moving rotting corpse is going to bust your door down and attempt to eat your brain.  Something else is at hand, and it’s not pretty.

***

Zombies are a part of the horror zeitgeist because... well, because they’re dead.   They’re mindless creatures, rotting from the inside out, their only goal to sate their unceasing hunger.  The zombies of cinema and literature are nothing more than barely animated corpses.  They seem alive but really, they’re not.

Sounds like some people I know.

Try this... get on Facebook sometime and scroll through your friend’s statuses.  How many people complain endlessly about their “hardships”, yet doing nothing about it?  Who do you know that structures their life around the “Jersey Shore” season premiere?  Why in the world would someone complain that they can’t lose weight but they never get off their couch to exercise (yet they somehow manage to make it to McDonald’s for lunch on a daily basis)?

Do you see where I’m going with this?

I know a lot of people, people with enormous potential, who walk mindlessly through life.  They don’t really live, they just exist, nothing more.  They work whatever job they managed to stumble into.  They go home and focus their attention on some vacuous TV show about tanned goofballs or perhaps drink until they’ve dulled the ache of regret.  They move from relationship to relationship, for the mere sake of being with someone... anyone.  They blame everyone but themselves for the state of their life, their health and their career.  They complain but never do anything about it.  In short, these are people who are not really living life... for all practical purposes, they may as well be zombies.

You might think I’m being a bit harsh... okay, maybe I am; but I got your attention, didn’t I?  Also, I’m the first one to admit that I’ve been there too.  I used to let life happen to me.  I used to let people tell me who I was.  I used to blame everyone and everything but me for what I didn’t like in my life.

A key phrase in that previous paragraph is used to.  I managed to change.  That’s proof that anyone can.

***

A big part of truly living life is being mindful of what you’re doing.  We all need to relax and blow off steam, but there are certainly better alternatives than to watch (and endlessly discuss) the antics of a bunch of morons whose only goals in life are to get drunk, have sex and argue with one another.  Why not take that time and devote it instead to something useful?  Exercise, read a good book, update your resume, etc. etc.

There are those who seemingly take great joy in endlessly complaining about their lot in life.  We’re all entitled to a bad day here and there, but as the 80’s band Devo famously said, “when a problem comes along, you must whip it”.   Hate your job?  Start looking for another one.  Significant other treating you poorly?  Try to work it out or get out.  Don’t like what the scale says?  Change your diet.  Exercise.

In short... take action.  Don’t just shuffle along, hoping you’ll stumble into something better.  Go after it.  Go get it.  Make it happen, don’t just let it happen.  

Don’t be a zombie.  Be fully alive.

"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."

— Mitch Albom