This post, Are you an American zombie?, saddened me almost to the point of tears. I’m not sure why exactly, because I don’t consider myself an American zombie in any respect. In fact, I am very conscious about what I do with my time, what I spend my money on and what TV shows I watch in any given week (commercial-free thanks to our modded Xbox).
Maybe it’s the fact that I see the zombies everywhere and I feel helpless to do anything about it in the people I love the most. I know that it is so easy to walk the “zombie” path in life. It’s so easy to think you never have enough, to want the bigger and better, the newest [insert item here]. It’s so easy to sit on the couch and zone out after a long, hard day at work. It’s so easy to be complacent towards the world and its problems. Unfortunately, it’s so easy to do nothing about being a zombie that your life slips away while watching those shows and shopping for stuff you don’t need.
I might be naive, but I still have hope that those zombies will wake-up one day soon and realise that life is more than television shows, hamburgers and BMW’s. And no, I do not have all the answers. What I do know is that life is not supposed to be the way it is for the majority of people out there and that life isn’t supposed to be one long string of doing the same “zombified” things, day after day.
That reminds me of a comic I found on xkcd.com and posted in my blog in April of this year: Dreams
So, yeah, what they said!
I read that article. It reminds me of “The Pedestrian” by Ray Bradbury.
What’s interesting is that some self-help junkies are just as bad as prozac-support junkies. In reading indefatigably about how to better their life, they seem to forget about life’s lessons intrinsically and how to use their head, ala Poe in “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Don’t get me wrong, I occasionally read self-help books and blogs but I feel I can accomplish just as much, if not more, by spending time to think about how to deal with problems. And, the only thing the blogs and books lack is the reality of failure, which is in some cases life’s greatest lesson. I think balance is really important, technological vs. self-driven, external advice vs. internal, etcetera. A balance which I, and many other people, are struggling to find.
Know what really stinks? People never realise what you just said until it’s too late. I came back now just to read that post again. My dad is in pretty bad shape in the ICU right now and I wanted to read your post again and tell you how very very right you are. My dad got out of the Zombie way, he quit his job teaching at Columbia University to open a rare bookstore.
Thanks for that post, it truly made me think.
Bobby – Yes, I totally agree with you on the “finding a balance” concept. So many people seem to think that extremes are the way to go, but in reality it’s about finding a good balance.
WebKittyn – Yeah, that’s the sad part about it. I’m so sorry about your dad. I can’t imagine how you must be feeling right now. I am so happy, though, that your dad got out of the Zombie way! Good for him.