The Zombie Invasion: A Look At Apathy
What is apathy? If we look it up in the dictionary, it is defined as lack of interest or concern, especially regarding matters of general importance or appeal; indifference. It's also defined as lack of emotion or feeling. If we check out the origin of the word in the Greek, it translates to 'without feelings'. Who, then, can live without feelings? A zombie could. The living dead. I'm sure this is what Victor Hugo had in mind when he wrote, "It's nothing to die; it's frightful not to live." Oliver Wendall Holmes, Jr. said this, "I think that, as life is action and passion, it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at peril of being judged not to have lived." Erich Fromm writes, "In the 19th century the problem was that God is dead; in the 20th century the problem is that man is dead."
Have we become a generation of zombies? What has caused us to join the ranks of the living dead? I believe the main culprit is fear. Many of us are afraid to act; afraid to reach out to others because of fear of rejection. We fear we will be unaccepted or ridiculed. We fear what others will think of us, and in doing so, we resign ourselves to a "half-life", as it were. Elizabeth Cady Stanton said, "The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls." If we are to live life fully, we must master our fear.
A zombie can also be defined as one who acts or responds in a mechanical or apathetic way; an automaton. Have we become a generation of zombies that are programmed to act and respond blindly to our controlling master? And just who is the master that is controlling us? Could it be Tradition, Fortune, Fame, Destiny or Patriotism? We have become a generation that willingly follows our master, never questioning; never seeking knowledge for ourselves. We follow what our pastors and priests tell us to do. We are like lambs led for the slaughter. We follow the wolves in sheep's clothing. When will we wake up and test things ourselves? We must awaken if we are to live.
Severance
In life, there are certain people who thrive on attacking others. When confronted with the truth, they lash out in denial instead of embracing it. I try to make it a point not to attack anyone, and only to show them the truth that I see. However, in doing so, I unwittingly unleash the hordes of zombie naysayers against myself.
Often, I weary myself with continued efforts to show that I'm not trying to attack them, only to show them the truth that I see. They become more furious, their anger brewing further until they reach a point where I cannot do anything but cut them off from me. If I allow them to stay, it will only cause me more grief in the long run.
And so I sever the limbs of the zombies and bury them in the ground, hopefully putting them to bed once and for all.
I'm sure they'll rise again. They always do, but next time I won't be so quick to fall for their tricks. I'll have an axe at the ready.
Purpose.
I've wandered through life for a long time, unsure of where I was going; unsure of what my purpose here was. I would look at others and become enrapt in what they were doing. I was a fan. I based my existance upon those that I gazed at. I thought if I could just get their attention long enough, then I'd be someone, too. I thought that 'love' was the answer. I believed John Lennon. All You Need Is Love. Of course, when I didn't receive love in return, I was devastated. My entire world crumbled. I'd recover to find someone else to gaze at. Thus, the cycle repeated. Over and over.
This, of course, led to my disillusionment with love and with life. If love wasn't the answer, what was? What is the purpose of life?
I've been quiet lately. I've been thinking. I've been writing.
I've been writing the story of my life. In doing so, I've had to face some situations that I thought I had already overcome. The question still arose, What is the purpose of life? While walking this morning, it occurred to me.
I'd been living my life as a bystander. A fan. I'd been watching others. Certainly, I've lived a little. But, have I really lived? Have I been fulfilling my purpose?
The answer is clear to me now. My purpose is to speak. My purpose is to provide a voice. My purpose is to tell my story. My purpose is to tell what I know.
The purpose is to be a doer. Find what it is that you're supposed to do, and do it. Live.
Here's a closing thought from Josh Becker:
"What this all comes down to, in regard to achievement, is -- what have you got to lose?
Whether you write a book or sculpt a statue, how can you possibly come out worse afterward? Perhaps you didn't get to watch as much TV as usual while doing this work, but you'll subsequently have a new book or a statue (or whatever) that you didn't have before. It could be David or it could be a block of marble reduced to dust, either way it was worth it. Doing anything is better than doing nothing."
It's said that the dream of ones life is to make beautiful art. And to make beautiful art, we must live. In living, we have a story to tell, which then becomes art. And, hopefully, it will inspire others to live and tell their stories.
Ultimately, I think that's what it is all about. The collective learning and inspiration progressing until finally all is accomplished and the end is come.
Klattu, Verata...Nickel?
I am so thankful that I have dreams. If viewed just right, they tend to shed a bit of light on what's going on in waking life.
I've been in a bit of a funk lately. I suppose it started around my birthday. Birthdays are supposed to be fun, right? Mine almost certainly never are. And I believe a lot of the reason behind that is simply perception. We're all 'taught' through movies and books that your friends should always throw huge parties for you, buy you lots of presents, etc. These things never happen on my birthday. So, I'm always left with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. It leaves me feeling as if no one really cares about me. Of course, that all stems from other issues as well. Namely, my birth mother abandoning me as a child, but that's not the real point of this entry.
The point is, I'd been feeling a bit down lately. Depressed, actually. Nothing seemed to hold my interest. Even just last night, Bruce Campbell nor shark movies cheered me up.
Enter the dreams.
The night before last I had dreamt that I was in chains and missing both of my arms. The only thing that came to memory was a deadite. Was I a deadite? Indeed, I do believe it so. "The Force", namely depression, had overtaken me. I was bound and had become one of the living dead. No feelings. No emotion. No spark of life.
And last night I had another dream. I dreamt that there was a deadite attacking a town. No one would fight it. I didn't stand up to it, either. Everyone suffered. But, that wasn't the reality. The reality was that it was a supposed future. I got to see what it would be like if I didn't fight this "force". Then, the situation repeated. And this time, I kicked undead ass.
Upon waking this morning, I knew what I had to do. Fight back. I remembered how Ash was overtaken by the force. And he fought it. He held onto the necklace and overcame the force. He remembered what it was like to feel. And it made him human again. But, not just any ordinary human. He had become a hero.
I think that's what we're all called to be. Heroes.
"Everybody loves a hero. People line up for them, cheer them, scream their names. And years later, they'll tell how they stood in the rain for hours just to get a glimpse of the one who taught them how to hold on a second longer." Spider-Man 2
Not only that, but heroes are ordinary people. Heroes make mistakes. The thing is, heroes don't let their mistakes get the best of them. They learn from them. And it makes them stronger.
The Wisdom of Bruce
I really dig Bruce Campbell. Not just because he's Bruce Campbell, the actor, mind you. No. I admire the actor, but I really admire the man. At least, the small glimpses into his character that I'm afforded from time to time.
I like the fact that he gets it. Life, I mean.
Take a look. Here's some things straight from the man.
* on autographs: Will it make you be a better parent? Will it help you get straight A's? Will it make you cool? Sure you can show it to all your friends and family, but come on, you and I know that the answer to ALL of the above is...no. ...... I may not be YOUR neighbor, but I just want to be treated like one. Help me poke big fat holes in all of those phony-baloney Hollywood mystiques about fame and fortune, will you? I hate to break it to you, but us cheezeball actor types are no better than you......why the heck my autograph should be worth one red cent more than yours. Are you any less VALUABLE? I think not, and that's really my whole point.
* on food: It also seems that we no longer eat because we're hungry. We eat because there is no end to the amount and variety we can get our hands on - we eat because we can - 24 hours a day. We eat when we're depressed or anxious or stressed. My response to this is: find out what torments you and deal with the root problem - don't kid yourself that consuming an entire box of Little Debbies is gonna do it....We have the right to be free thinkers. Heck, you've got the right to get fat or stay fat. That's fine, as long as it's a conscious decision. The problems lie in the fact that we spend too much of our time being UN-conscious.
* on conservation: ....mankind should "give something up." This begs the modern day question: Are you insane? We LIKE those out-of-control "recreation" machines. We have become very ACCUSTOMED to the unchecked use of electricity. We're USED to leaving the hose running while we wash our car. But, the question is - should we be so unthinking about all of this? Personally, I don't think so....Can we actually turn back the hands of time? I honestly believe we can, but we've got to think twice about the nasty business of consumption. A basic shift in mentality has to take place. Our tired mantra of, "what do we want?" must instead become, "what do we NEED?"
Name's Ash. Housewares.
Who is Ashley J. "Ash" Williams? Why, he is the main character in the Evil Dead trilogy, played by Bruce Campbell. He's an average man. He's an "idiot and a jerk like the rest of us". But he is also the chosen one. He was prophesied of. He is the one who shall deliver mankind from the terror of the deadites.
If we take a look at his name, Ashley or Ash, it is representative of the ash tree. The ash tree is valued for its tough wood. It is used in items demanding high strength and resilience. It is very elastic, and it matures more rapidly than oak. The character Ash also has these same attributes. Ash is tough, strong, and resilient. He recovers quickly. And he matures very rapidly as we can see in the progression of the trilogy.
Ash is also a letter in the Old English alphabet, AE. AE was also used as a pseudonym for the author George William Russell. And he derived it from AEon. Aeons are known as beings of light in Gnosticism. Plato also used aeon to denote the eternal world of ideas, which he concieved was 'behind' the perceived world. He demonstrated this in his famous
allegory of the cave.
In this context, we can conclude that Ash, himself, could possibly be the illuminator to the 'primitive screwheads' in Army of Darkness. Without Ash, there is no doubt that the people would have come under the control of the deadites. Thus, being the bound and chained.
I'd like to think that we all have the potential to be like Ash. To fight off the deadites, sacrificing our own hand if we have to. We all have the potential to illuminate others. The question is, will we rise to the occasion?
