Warning: Another Party-Pooping Rant

There is a(n eerily un)hostile zombie takeover afoot.

Our culture breeds a zombie virus (though to which “our” I refer I am not entirely sure). We are not born with this disease – it is something we contract, usually at an early age, and succumb to quite quickly.

We are wise to the ways of this sickness; most will shake the zombie stupor at least once or twice in a lifetime, often at the middle of her life or when a harrowing event unfolds to shake up the routine. But unfortunately, many will dive right back into the affliction for ease or comfort like a victim of drug dependency.

We laugh at this disease every day in movies and on TV.

We are (at least mildly) aware of the plight, and yet we are complacent about it.

Years and years ago, in a fit of dramatics I wrote:

Spit or Swallow

We’re a generation of swallowers. We slouch, unmoving, with dull and sunken eyes while a black cancer is digested. It traces the path of our veins to the tips of our fingers and toes and embeds itself in our DNA. I wish we could shred the fear we’re fed and then spit it into the dirt.

This past week, long after I started mulling over a post on this topic, we were out to eat with a friend and I stumbled upon the fact that he has recently found himself (like so many others) unemployed. But contrary to the expected tune, he was singing one of how he had rediscovered his life since his time freed up. When employed, he could think of little to do with his (extremely limited) time off; come the weekend, he would be tired and bored, unable to think of a single interesting thing to do. But now that his life is no longer consumed by an occupation that was (apparently) draining him, he has discovered an endless variety of productive things to get excited about and activities to do.

He shook the virus. For him it took a career change (loss).

There is a dearth of forward motion. It is the minority who actually enjoy learning and continue (or begin) to do so at the end of the obligatory stint. Everyone seems content to stay where they are, and I find this inherently dangerous. Stagnancy is my biggest fear – which is why I try to push forward, in one way or another, at all times (and is why my life is not boring). And perhaps that should tell me something; perhaps I am letting my fears get the best of me. Perhaps these hoards of citizens who go to work, come home, relax, and feel no need for stimulation that goes beyond a television and a beer have found the answer to a secret that I haven’t found yet: perhaps they are truly content. Perhaps they have all the fulfillment they need. In which case my attempts to constantly move forward are just a spinning of wheels on a road that goes nowhere.

…?

But I’m not prepared to accept that. Marital infidelities and polls about job dissatisfaction and the number of lawsuits filed indicate otherwise. These are not indications of a truly content society. Disease rates, cosmetic surgeries, and three hundred dollar jeans indicate otherwise.

WAKE. UP.

Claw your way back to conscious and examine who you are, where you live, what you eat, the people you pass every day on the street, what you watch on television, your friends, where you money goes, your relationships, what you read, how you spend your days, how you spend your nights, your dreams and goals, your dissatisfactions, and everything else. Examine it all – pay very close attention and see where the ability to chose your life gets you. It may be more work, but it’s worth it…