Zombie Plan

Okay I know you are wondering what the heck the Zombie Plan is and what it is doing here?  It really all sort of started as a joke.  We were living in Las Vegas at the time and being a fan of video games and zombie movies as something of a joke I started to come up with plans for what we would do if a zombie attack happened.  Since we lived close to a Bass Pro Shop we decided we would go there because it has food, water, transportation, and weapons.  As time went by and everyone in the family got more into playing the game we refined our plans.  When we moved back to Phoenix we even altered the plan to account for our new location.  It was that fun thing like planning how you would spend the money if you won the lottery.

The part that I have been asked to pass onto all of you was really the philosophical part that came out as we built the plan.  In all zombie movies or any apocalyptic disaster movie there are only certain kinds of characters.   They tend to fall into the food or not food category.  The food person is the one that panics, screams, looses their damn minds and you know even if they are being protected by others, they will sooner or later mess up and get themselves killed.  The not food people are those that think quick, move fast, don’t get lost in asking why or having self doubt.  They don’t scream!  They survive and usually if they get killed it is because of some damn food person.

How does this turn into a philosophical point of view?  Ask yourself are the people in your life people you would want to let in to your compound to help in your survival?  Could they pull the trigger or would they scream and trip only to become food?  How this got applied to our lives was in conversations with our kids about what kind of boyfriends or girlfriends they might like to seek.  Were they zombie plan worthy?  It became the question to ask.

The reality is that life is hard.  There are bills, health issues, death, divorce, job loss or even the hell of job hunting.  It is always a challenge even when it appears to all be going smooth because as we all know this too shall pass.  No matter if it is good times or bad, they will some day pass and move onto something else.  That is the nature of life…change. 

You have to be tough enough to handle it and yet vulnerable enough to enjoy it.  When you apply the zombie plan to that, having people in your life that would really just be food seems a very bad plan.  If you don’t believe a person would be of use in a survival situation how can you possibly believe they could be useful in life? 

Before someone out there starts flipping out and saying I hate all people who face challenges of a mental or physical nature, let me just clarify I am not talking about an only the strong survive philosophy.  I am talking about strength of spirit, a willingness to really just get in there and support those around them, who don’t crumble at the first sign of trouble.  Really if I looked at my family and friends many of us aren’t in shape, if we had to run a marathon it would probably kill us.  But I also know that each and everyone of them could step up in a crisis and take the load.  They have strong shoulders to lean on and a will to go on in the face of even the worst of times.  Those are the people worth having around.

So the next time you find yourself on the fence about inviting a person to join you life as a friend or lover, perhaps you should ask yourself the question, are they zombie plan worthy? You will probably find yourself surprised and pleased with the answers.  I know other people have.

As a funny side note, since the beginning of our zombie plan discussions it turns out that many people we know have their own zombie plans should it all go to shit.  Most of them aren’t really applying it to picking people but they do have a plan for the crisis and that is a good thing.  We like a good plan!