I thought a picture of Thanksgiving herbs were far more appropriate than zombies.

During the week of Thanksgiving I started working on my daily preparation task list for the pending holiday feast. My daughter decided this year to let me handle everything (I was not surprised) while she decided to indulge in a little “Walking Dead” via Netflix. Because Netflix automatically advances to the next episode in a series she decided to settle into a “Walking Dead” marathon while I painstakingly chopped onions and herbs, peeled and roasted squash, cubed loaves of bread…you get the idea.

Our television resides in the space attached to our kitchen; this provided me with the good fortune of being entertained by the sounds of (apparently very hungry) zombies attacking the walking a-okays who brutally fought back a demise of being eaten alive with axes, knives and blunt objects.

Hats off to the special effects team for creating such a delightful audio experience I was subjected to whilst working peacefully in the kitchen on our holiday meal.

As much as I tried to drown out the sounds of the non-stop body ripping, blood splattering massacre caused by an entire nation gone zombie; the story line eventually penetrated my mental safe zone. In doing so it embedded nuggets of information in my subconscious regarding the very unfortunate main characters intended to carry us through the entire series…somewhat.

Nuggets I say because I wasn’t really paying attention…and there was no way I was going to sit on the couch with her and watch the grueling imagery that took over that area of our house. I hated that kind of blood and gore entertainment. Even though I knew all of it was fake, I still couldn’t stomach such gore. I continued prepping food.  However, as the series unfolded with each episode I started (unconsciously) paying attention. Curiosity finally set in and forced me to stay interested; just enough to listen though, not watch.

So during that entire week while I prepared Thanksgiving dinner the landscape of my life was infused with the sites and sounds of “The Walking Dead”. And as much as I hate to admit this, after my daughter left to hang out with her dad for the weekend I indulged (fully engaged I might add) in the remaining marathon, solo…on the couch with no interruptions. Yes, by that time (thanks to many sneak-peeks my daughter conned me into watching) I became numb to the ridiculous amounts of blood and zombie terrorizing gore that was the fabric of the series.

I watched normal every-day people lose everything that made up their lives and identity pre-zombies. Professionals lost their corporate status and bank accounts (after all money didn’t matter anymore); farmers lost land that had been in their family for many generations, beautiful lives, cars, homes, clothes and anything materialistic that provided comfort and differentiated people from one another…gone in a blink of an eye.

More disturbing than the story line though was the fact that the more I forced myself to keep my eyes open during the gory attacks the more I became numb to the disturbing images. By the end of the series I found myself actually laughing at the obvious “no way but of course” special effects.

Now, I know this series is pure fiction but there is always some underlying truth that supports a fictitious story. And so after the last episode ended of season 3 (I think there are 6 total), I pondered a bit about the situation that mankind endured in this story as well as what I endured in order to watch the series without flinching.

No matter how bad things got, many survived. And no matter how gory the scenes became I found a way to eventually watch with eyes open.

And from there I walked away with one profound thought (well at least to me it seemed profound) and two inspiring realizations. Yes, inspiring.

We could certainly learn a lot from dead, “The Walking Dead” that is. That was my thought. And from that, this is what I realized (the inspirational part).

Inspiration #1 – We are as resilient as we choose to be.
Fictitious or not, I think if humanity faced a global disaster that forever changed the landscape of our way of life, we would adjust accordingly for the sake of survival. No matter how bleak the situation, we are capable of rising to the occasion with the spirit to survive…if we choose to do so.

If we have the ability to do this in the face of great danger we should certainly have the ability to roll with the highs and lows of everyday life as we know it now without putting too much emphasis on the material things.

For me, I think moving forward I’m going to start putting meaningful attention to the things or situations that cause me to worry. I think I’ll start asking myself this question; “if there was a zombie apocalypse today, would this be something that would stay intact or would it fall away in the blink of an eye?” Anything that falls in the “gone in the blink of an eye” category I’ll be more willing to mentally let go of.

Inspiration #2 – If we continue to subject ourselves to a situation we don’t like (such as the case with me watching the zombie gore) long enough we become numb to it and eventually accept it as the norm.

We shouldn’t ever give ourselves permission or force ourselves to be subject to something repeatedly we really don’t like, or worse, hate. This could be a job, career choice, a relationship, residence or …whatever. If you hate it move on to something you love before you get numb to it and allow yourself to get forever sucked in to a really bad “norm”.

Maybe I’ll just call this the “Zombie Gore Effect”.

*Beware of the Zombie Gore Effect*

I wonder just how many times I’ve allowed myself to get numb to the gore (aka, life mismatches). It’s certainly something I won’t be doing anymore.

Oh and by the way, Thanksgiving dinner was a smash!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

I am,
The Urban Mountaineer