Zombies! What you really need to survive

Zombies! They are everywhere! Not literally, of course. I mean in entertainment. For some crazy reason our society has been on a zombie kick for a while. If you want to make a show that will bring in money no matter how low budget, make a zombie show. People can’t seem to get enough. Personally, I haven’t joined the bandwagon and I don’t get the hype. However, the zombie craze phenomena has made me think. I’ve been wondering what draws us to that subject so much. Why is it so insatiable?

There are many theories out there. One of them that I heard about is that as primal beings we are simultaneously drawn in by and repulsed by violence. We have to avoid it to preserve our lives but there are times when we have to embrace it to survive. The theory is that in a “zombie state” the people are beyond saving. They are dehumanized enough that it is easier for us to justify watching violence against another person.

I have another theory. Zombie shows are all about the people who have somehow not been turned into zombies and are trying to survive against a horde of living dead. I wonder if maybe it is a symbol of our own existence. As a society we are slowly becoming more sick, more mindless,more pathetic creatures who live only for consumption. Those may be harsh words but they are motivating! On the other hand, something inside of us knows that we aren’t meant to live like this. Deep down we know that we have more potential. We know we have a mission in life to fulfil besides sitting in a chair all day memorizing meaningless facts and then coming home and staring at a screen, and eating nothing but junk. The zombie survivors are a symbol of this part of us that is fighting a seemingly impossible battle with the outer zombie and is desperate to live. My theory may be wrong, but it is food for thought. (Insert witty pun about eating brains.)Continue reading→

Falling… with style!

When I was a single guy in college, I was invited to go on a hiking trip. By chance, it ended up being me and 6 girls. Of course, I was pretty happy about that! It was a fairly easy hike but it goes up into a somewhat narrow canyon in the red sandstone of Southern Utah so there are a few places that require some scrambling and balance. I was pretty confident in my scrambling abilities and I was able to climb up and down the steep areas with ease. I wouldn’t say I was showing off, exactly, but I was secretly hoping that I would impress the ladies. (C’mon, I was a single college guy, of course I was showing off!) I probably did make an impression because, although I managed the more difficult areas of the hike with ease, on a particularly easy section of trail, I was not being mindful and tripped over a rock! It was the only rock in the trail and it was big enough that I should have noticed it. We were moving quickly so I had some good momentum to make the fall even more humiliating. I popped up off the ground and continued walking like nothing hContinue reading→

Movement Is Life!

"Nothing happens until something moves." —Albert Einstein
My wife and I were recently watching a webinar about healing cancer by Chris Wark. In one of the modules he said that movement is the signal to the body to live. I’ve had similar thoughts but I really liked the way it was articulated. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. While there are probably many ways in which this is true, I came up with four major ways in which movement signals life in the body.Continue reading→

Comfort Kills

My wife and I bought a “fixer-upper” home in the country. It is a very unique home and while the original construction was sound, much of the house was in poor condition and needed some serious updates. This is still a work in progress. One day my brother-in-law was over and my wife was telling him what our long term plans for the house were. She mentioned that we were going to get rid of the couch. He asked if we would get a new one and my wife told him that we would not. He wondered what we would replace it with. We said we were not going to replace it at all. With a quizzical look he asked us where we would sit! We explained that we would keep a few chairs for company but that we would mostly sit on the floor. He was understandably shocked and stated that that didn’t sound very comfortable! Well, for him it isn’t very comfortable but we are growing used to it. Typically, I prefer sitting on the floor to sitting on a cushy couch. (I’ll write more about that decision later)Continue reading→