WHAT IS A ZOMBIE?

                A zombie is dead. Yup. That pretty much settles it. A zombie is dead and doesn’t really do much. Well until it is reanimated. But essentially most zombie lore says that zombies are dead. They have no heartbeat. They have little or no higher brain function. Dead. It’s not that zombies are dumb. Well, maybe they are, but I think it wise to say they are ignorant. A zombie doesn’t ask how this bite, harsh comment, or groan will influence the living around me. 

                A zombie is reanimated to life. Whether by a virus, an alien satellite, a voodoo doctor, cell phone signals, demonic influence, pollution, or a chemical agent created by some secretive company. The great fear of zombies is not that they are dead, but dead come back to life. How do you kill something that is already dead? You don’t. And wherever you go, zombies will be there. 

                A zombie is hungry for human flesh. He devours other people to satisfy his own needs. A zombie doesn’t think of other people. They don’t feed on each other because the flesh is rotted. In the 1985, “Return of the Living Dead”, the zombies feed to make themselves feel better. A zombie torments the living around him for his own needs. You could say a zombie derives pleasure from torment but is ignorant of his actions based on his own desires to feed. 

                A zombie has no control over his/her actions. A zombie is controlled by instinct and desire not by choice. We have for some reason connected free will to an attribute to the living. And a zombie has no free will. He is a victim of his rebirth into death. And even more frightening, a zombie doesn’t seem to be aware that he or she is a zombie. 

                How many zombies do you know? They feed on your misery to make themselves feel better? They live and feed but thrive on the decay of the world. Found throughout the Bible, is the concept that we are born separated, different from God. We possess the beautiful form and perhaps potential, but we are dead because of our evil ways. Are there zombies around you who want to eat your flesh? Are you one of them? 

                The movie “Warm Bodies” (2013) has a zombie that doesn’t want to be a zombie anymore. And what gives him the ability to overcome his desire for feeding? Love. And while zombies may not know that they are zombies, we who are alive, can help them change their desire to feed by simple love. Just don’t get eaten.