The more conversation I have with
Yulonda, the more I like her. She is funny and she has a kind heart. She is
also prone to some fairly comical outbursts. I have found that in this time,
the only thing you can do is surf the crazy wave and let her just rage out. You
let her rant and rave and let her get it all out of her system. Then things go
back to normal. I am sure you all know someone like this.
Yesterday, “Yolo” – the kids call her
that and I refuse to acknowledge that stupid phrase – was ranting about just
wanting a “normal” life. I am sure that if we could time travel and drop in at
any point in human history in darn near any culture, you could find someone
wishing the same thing. I think you have to search amongst the lower-middle
class people where they have a house and car but just not very nice ones.
I seriously doubt the wealthy and
upper class want “normal.” And I often feel that those truly destitute and
homeless are there because of some really bad life choices and wouldn’t know
what to do with “normal” if they had it thrust upon them.
Now, part of me wants to go the
Geordie LaForge route and ask, “What is normal?” Is normal simply what people
have grown accustom to? Take a person from before all this began and drop them
back in the 80s. No internet, no cell phones, no satellite TV. They would
probably call that world hell. But then have them choose between 80s America
and Zombified America.
I agree that the basic necessities for
humans will never change. People need food, shelter, and transportation. On an
emotional scale, we need to connect with others, live, and love. Those themes
will never change.
But this? This world?
Let us imagine that this zombie menace
cannot be easily stomped out or ever fully eradicated. If that is the case,
then Alex’s generation will be the LAST generation that will remember life
without this threat. The generation that comes after – let’s say if Kasondra and
Brad have a kid – they will never have lived in a world where this threat is
right outside his front door.
Let’s say we get this thing contained
to a point where humanity is back on the winning side and life gets back to the
way it was before but the zombie threat is still lurking. Does Mommy get Little
Johnny’s checklist ready for school. “Here is your book bag, homework, lunch
box, and zombie killing stick.”
I was told that kids in Israel used to
carry gas masks in their backpacks for fear of chemical attacks. Was that just
normal to them because that was all they had ever known? If you drop a peasant
farmer from north of Pyongyang in the middle of the Vegas strip and reveal it
all with the dramatic ripping off a blindfold. Would their brain leak out of
their ears not believing that such a world was even possible?
Will kids of the next generation just
scoff at our stories? “You mean there wasn’t a time when you had to outrun
undead cannibals, Dad?” Will it all just be normal for them? Regardless, if Kasondra
and Brad decide to have a kid, think they have to name him John. Or Connor. Or
John Connor Chambers. Some variation of that. Maybe he will be part of the
“resistance” that successfully reclaims humanity if we don’t do it first…
