don't be a zombie, zombie no gon' go
i've been kind of obsessed with zombies lately. i guess this shouldn't really come as a surprise since so many of us in the world seem to be obsessed with them. seems like three or four zombie films come out every year, oh and then there's the televisions shows, the novels, the video games, on and on and on this zombie craze seems to go. what does it all mean? i don't know. there's so many articles about that. all i can do is tell you what my own obsession is about.
i'm not really into the consumer obsession with zombies. i don't care to watch zombie movies on repeat and i've never read a book about zombies so if you're looking for an expert opinion, this ain't it. all i can give you is my own experience, that's all i got, hope you like it. my understanding of zombies comes more from my observations of the way we interact with one another and meditating on the small amount of things of i've heard, seen and read. one of my favorite songs by the nigerian musician fela kuti is called zombie. (i'm placing a link of it at the bottom of this blog post.) i first heard the song during the broadway production of his life. it was during a section of the film where fela is trying to comprehend how so many of his sisters and brothers could be fighting to uphold a system so corrupt. in particular he was trying to understand the mind of the soldier, who can rape and kill his own family members while simultaneously being oppressed by the system that he works for. the only way he could comprehend it was by viewing the soldier as a zombie who will not, "go unless you tell him to go." in this way, the zombie is not just an animated corpse, the zombie is those who have given up ALL of their free will to corrupt leaders. forget the brain eating zombies, THAT's a zombie that isn't just on a t.v. screen.
there is an aspect of this zombie that does have to do with the dead walking, but instead of them walking to find brains, they only walk because someone else tells them to and this also begs the question, what really is death? death is more than just when your lungs cease to breathe and your heart ceases to beat, it is anytime in our lives when we cease to move of our own will, when we give up our wills and wait for another to tell us when to go. this is a daily battle for me, on both sides of the equation. it's not that i don't have ideas of what i want to happen, it's more that i'm finding it difficult to have the will to make it happen, like i'm waiting for someone to tell me it's time to start doing what i know i have to. i don't think i'm the only one who feels this way either, because when i look at so many of the people around me, i'm seeing the same thing. everybody i know is brilliant, but very few people are using their full brilliance, and to me, it seems like they are waiting for someone to tell them to get started.
dear ones, i believe that this is the zombie of our world, the real zombie, the zombie that keeps us from getting up and doing it. the one that keeps us from being the change. the one that can only be defeated through decapitation or burning while at the same time cannot be defeated without acceptance and inner peace. but most importantly, the only way to liberate a zombie is to stop listening to others and move on our own will. until we can figure out how to do that, "zombie not gonna go unless you tell him to go."
peace,
tai amri