The Walking Dead – The Z Word

Greetings Dear Reader,

One of the things of note in The Walking Dead is the absence of the word “Zombie.”  They have many names for the dead who are walking around trying to eat them.  Terms of endearment such as walkers, biters, and skin eaters are common.  They are also called roamers, meat puppets, and lurkers.

That last term gives me a chill as it is the name I gave years ago to a particularly terrifying monster that has haunted my nightmares since I was very young.  Whatever you call the creatures that are reanimated dead bodies the show avoids the word “Zombie” like a plague.

In my mind this amounts to a form of denial.  Although the sum of the characters’ lives make is clear that they are living the reality of a Zombie Apocalypse they do not use the one word that describes it.  We use so many euphemisms for things we want to avoid.  It is not just death that we avoid using.  We double speak and mislabel things in order to sound less on the mark about things that are unpleasant.

We change the terms to things to avoid the implications of more blunt terms.  I remember a time when you did not say “cancer” but rather referred to it as “the c”.  We have replaced the term “layoff” with “reduction in force” to make it sound less like we are putting people out of work.  We lack the courage to call a thing what it is.

We have invented many terms for death to avoid saying that someone is dead.  He “passed away”, “moved on”, or “went to glory” are a few that immediately leap to mind.  We should soften the blow as much as possible when informing someone of a death.  We must not lessen the impact of our state as a fallen race.

We are condemned to die.  We cannot avoid it or control it.  No matter how we choose to say it, we are dying daily.  We owe a debt that we will be called to pay.  We need to learn to speak of it openly and not deny its impending call.

I must live every day with the knowledge that I have less time than I did yesterday.  This must move me to use that time wisely.  It is my duty as a Christ follower to see the sand dropping through the hour glass and count every grain as precious.  I must redeem the time as much as possible to assure that I find Christ in each moment.  Someday I will die.  What matters is that I lived well.   

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store."  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)