Skip to main content

Zombified

You know, I have never really thought much about zombies previously. Well yeah, I grew up listening to 'Zombie' by The Cranberries thanks to my uncle who played it rather frequently back in our old house and I loved how they repeatedly sang "zombie-eh-eh-eh", but I never really wondered what the heck zombies are. Not that they truly or predominantly exist (but then again, I can never be sure). But I was introduced to a game of zombies sometime last year and I learnt that they are these people who are ironically alive while being dead, walking around, soulless. Pretty terrifying creatures with stains of cold, hardened blood on their decaying clothes who walk weird and make weird noises. With this, I suppose all the more you feel motivated to shoot them in L4D2. Anyway, sometime ago I caught the movie 'World War Z' and learnt that the dead cannot be any dead-er so it is pretty hard to kill 'em and pretty recently, I finally succumbed to watching 'Warm Bodies'. I thought the latter was really good from which lessons can be drawn. I like how fictional films and books carry much underlying truths about life in general.

So 'Warm Bodies' is about the de-zombifying experience of this particular zombie character, who upon chancing into this girl (ah, typical ey?), began to understand and feel love in itself and gradually, started showing signs of being human - to be able to make out words, to experience what cold feels like while walking in the rain, to regain strength, speed and vitality, to feel love, to feel pain, to bleed, to connect with others, to be able to sleep and dream, to be motivated, to think, to share his thoughts and to inspire others to strive and aspire for the betterment. In essence, the zombie was becoming human; his heart started beating, he was radiating warmth and he has something to fight for - he had a purpose.

Now, after watching this reverse process makes me realize truly the true blessings of being alive. I was watching this in the comforts of being away from home while on vacation and within close proximity to nature and could not help but to reflect the experience of being zombified upon my own life and to further make sense of some general observations I make at work and experiences shared by people. I think that sometimes we have fallen into this risk of being zombified, or heck, I think perhaps sometimes we are zombified. Not that we are dead, but our spirit is dead. Our heart is beating, but we are not skipping to its beat. The beating becomes mere rhythms of just mere existence without meaning. Don't we feel that way sometimes? So caught up with pursuits after pursuits, so busy, so exhausted and we feel like we run on auto-pilot that we lose our senses and feelings. All of a sudden we are clueless with what excites us anymore. Sometimes we lose the joy with what we once thought was the source of joy and inspiration for us. And then we scramble in search of meaning. In the process, we might encounter a dead-end, and we start falling into helplessness and despair. And then we started asking ourselves, what the heck am I doing with my life?

So if there is a debate if zombies truly exist, I would say I think they do. We humans, if we don't inculcate this habit of meaning-making, can potentially be zombies. But let's try not to be zombies.

The process of meaning-making is not an easy one; it requires concerted efforts. We need to try. With whatever ways we can. To awaken our souls. To detach, to let go and feel free. To de-stress. To shop around for what excites us. To be passionate about something. To feel deeply about something. To nurture existing friendships. To do acts of kindness. To be creative and do things differently. To take risks. To sing. to dance. Whatever.

Anything, anything to make ourselves feel alive.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hitam Manis

This is difficult to write, but it's definitely an important one amidst all the conversations we've been having lately. Growing up being brown/Malay wasn't easy, especially when it became ingrained in me that having a darker skin tone by default, is less desired than fairer skin tones. In childhood, I couldn't recall having to endure comments about my skin colour. Thankfully amongst children, these values ascribed to lightness and darkness didn't yet come to the fore. This consciousness became more obvious since secondary school. And it was tough and painful.  I've been in a sports CCA since secondary school and I couldn't really avoid not becoming tanned. What hurts the most was even my peers at that time would make comments about my skin colour without even realising the damage caused from these words. These comments I recall, were sometimes made under the guise of humour. I was called 'budak hitam' (literally means 'black child') and even ...

Anything but ordinary

Sometimes I get so weird I even freak myself out I laugh myself to sleep it's my lullaby Sometimes I drive so fast Just to feel the danger I want to scream it makes me feel alive To walk within the lines Would make my life so boring I want to know that I have been to the extreme So knock me off my feet Come on now, give it to me Anything to make me feel alive Is it enough to love? Is it enough to breathe? Somebody rip my heart out And leave me here to bleed Is it enough to die? Somebody save my life I'd rather be anything but ordinary please I'd rather be anything but ordinary please Let down your defenses Use no common sense If you look, you will see That this world is a beautiful, accident Turbulent, succulent, opulent Permanent, no way I wanna taste it Don't wanna waste it away yeah, yeah Sometimes I get so weird I even freak myself out I laugh myself to sleep it's my lullaby I'd rather be anything but ordinary please

Be, be your love

Just in Rachael Yamagata mood (: If I could take you away Pretend I was queen What would you say Would you think I'm unreal 'Cause everybody's got their way I should feel Everybody's talking how I, can't, can't be your love But I want, want, want to be your love Want to be your love, for real Everybody's talking how I, can't, can't be your love But I want, want, want to be your love Want to be your love for real Want to be your everything Everything... Everything's falling, and I am included in that Oh, how I try to be just okay Yeah, but all I ever really wanted Was a little piece of you Everything will be alright If you just stay the night Please, sir, don't you walk away, don't you walk away, don't you walk away Please, sir, don't you walk away, don't you walk away, don't you walk away And everybody's talking how I, can't, can't be your love But I want, want, want to be your love Want to be your love, for re...