Assuming the folks on television
are correct, which is a pretty tough assumption to make, but assuming they are
correct, how tough must it be to convince a ghost that they are dead and that
they must move on? I mean, how do you
make that case? Obviously, all the
evidence is in your favor, but how do you convince someone or some “thing” of
something that they are unwilling to see, believe, or to otherwise acknowledge?
“You are dead.”
“Boo.”
As the lore, television, and the
movies go, to attempt to convince a spectral interloper of their deceased
nature is to invite their wrath and all sorts of shenanigans.
“No, seriously, you are dead.”
“BOO!” A light bulb shatters in the background.
*****************************************************************************
Zombies, as fun as they are,
suffer from numerous logical breakdowns.
I mean there is the big metaphysical question, how are they
animated? Obviously there is some base
form of drive or intelligence because they are able to walk, to moan, in some
cases even to cry out “Brains!”, they know to devour the living, and they
display rudimentary pack behaviors. So
there’s something going on in there, but they’re dead. It is one of the great mysteries of pop
culture and zombies will drive you flat nuts if you think about it too long. There’s just so many questions that are never
adequately addressed.
Why are they so bent on eating
the living? In 1985’s “Return of the
Living Dead” an explanation is given by a talking zombie (I would’ve included
the clip, but there is some salty language) that they eat not people per se,
but rather brains, because by implication (though it is never explained)
something about living brains soothes the pain of being dead.
With the primary motivation of
consuming the living, one also has to wonder, “Do zombies poop?” I mean, all that flesh has to go somewhere
and if they are truly dead, then there is no need for nourishment and therefore
no need for digestion, which is good because dead tissue cannot digest
anything. Does what they consume just
sit in the gut until they explode? Does
it just slide right on out since all the plumbing ought to go slack since they’re
dead, which in turn causes one to have to question again, “Why are you eating
the living?” While fun, it’s all pretty illogical.
However, without getting too deep
in “dissecting” zombies, what is standard is that they have an insatiable,
irrational hunger for the living. The
animated, living dead have a one track mind and a singular purpose, to eat
living flesh thereby destroying life.
Zombies don’t eat other zombies, but they will eat the recently
dead. Aside from the relatively
intelligent zombies of “Return of the Living Dead”, they know not why; they
only know that they must eat the living.
******************************************************************************
The dead (living, apparitional,
and otherwise) are irrational.
******************************************************************************
One of the most
perplexing, heartbreaking, and maddening things I’ve run into as a
pastor/chaplain are those that simply want to die even when help is
available. I feel I must clarify at this
point, that I am not talking about the suicidal, but rather the interesting
phenomenon of significantly ill patients who should have a reasonable hope of
some sort of recovery, with a decent quality of life, who refuse treatment or
life saving measures.
I’ve seen this on a handful of
occasions; people become so resolved to the idea of death, that they reject the
possibility of life. However, they not
only reject the possibility of life, but they cling desperately to death. And not only do they cling desperately to
death, it often times seems that they want to pull everyone around them
along for the ride. Death for all of
its darkness, fear, and unknown becomes a security blanket. It’s almost as if they crave the taste of
death. Folks in this situation will
kick, claw, bite and lash out should you attempt to come between them and
death. Sometimes death is safer than
life.
Obviously in most of these cases
there are deeper issues at play; depression, no basis of hope, and frankly,
sometimes we just get tired of hurting or suffering. Through my own experience, I can relate. I mean after a decade of feeling like my arms
were quite literally on a fire twenty four hours a day, I was ready to be done
and was exhausted from suffering. But in
the majority of the cases that I’m thinking of as I am writing this, there was
a reasonable expectation of the extension of life with an increase of
quality. I can remember thinking in all
of these situations, with no shortage of empathy, “Getting better is sometimes
scary and even painful; coming back to life can be terrifying. Sometimes, it’s just easier to die.”
******************************************************************************
I know death well in its many guises. I know how it craves and
fears the living all at once. I know death; I know there are fates far
worse and far more terrifying than ghosts and shambling zombies…the living
dead already amongst us. Stay tuned for Pt. 3.
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