Zombies

     I was leaving for work yesterday just as NPR had some sort of "news" about surviving the attack of zombies.  It must not have been much more than a sarcastic quip (how else would NPR talk about zombies?) because by the time I got to my car they had moved on to some other story.  But that's when it hit me!  I'm talking about the same thing - zombies!  Except, now I understand that I'm trying to point out how the attack is already well under way!
     After all, according to Wikipedia, being a zombie means to be "a hypnotized person, bereft of consciousness and self-awareness yet ambulant and able to [react] to surrounding stimuli; mindless shambling; of low affect with a death-like trance and hostile to life; sometimes caused by a pandemic illness, breaking down civilization and resulting in flesh-eating, specifically brains."  How is this not a description of what's going-on in most public schools, fast food restaurants, work places and the American media!?!
     (Okay.  I might have leapt off the deep-end here but one of the mottos I subscribe to is, "If falling - dive.")  The "How I Am: Being Human" chart of my previous post would attempt to help a zombie by asking, "Do you know how what you're ingesting is affecting your moods?  What sort of exercise do you get besides shambling around town all night and day?  Just what is your sleep pattern?  Have you ever heard the word "ablutions?"  Does anyone know what you do for a living, or un-living, or...  What exactly do you do?  How would you describe being undead, or un-living, or whatever you call it?  And if it's really fulfilling why are you so insatiable?  What interests you?  Do you fully comprehend and understand why you want to hang-around with all those other zombies?  How does being a zombie contribute to your personal experience; your family's experience of you; your reputation in the community?  Do you realize how your emotions have gotten so stuffed that all you ever say is 'Mmmaahhrrgg?'  Where does choice and change fit in to being neither fully alive or completely dead?  If you hadn't chewed-off your fingers would you still play the piano?  Are creativity, freedom and personal responsibility even possible for zombies?  Is your zombie approach to life, eating brains in particular, a surrender, or avoidance or maybe an overcompensation for how desperate your thinking is?  Does this phrase, 'We don't see things as they are; we see things as we are' mean anything to you?  Is it possible that you're in fact the only zombie in the world and projecting your personal slime all over the place?  How safe is it for anyone living to be around you?  Would you please stop staring at my forehead?  Could I interest you in some macaroni and cheese?"  And so on and so forth.
     Unfortunately, the normalization (and resulting invisibility) of oppression, addiction, trauma and shame all contribute to the life/un-life of a zombie: lack of self-awareness, reacting to stimuli (instead of responding), carelessness and hostility toward others (and "otherness"), and general dis-ease and illness.  Maybe the influx of zombies into human consciousness (in the media and recklessly tail-gaiting you in a Suburban) is a metaphoric warning that "How I Am: Being Human" has been reduced to deadened emotional cores, superficial feelings and values, and rotting beliefs and thoughts about self and others.  I think the oppression of human potential, the pursuit of addictive relationships, the trauma of too many experiences and the resulting shame-filled perceptions (however "normal" they seem) are constantly being revealed in purposeful behavior that is best described as the mindless shambling of zombies.  And the attack is well under way.