4 1/2 seasons in and it’s not like I don’t get the appeal, though what’s kept me going is probably… hell, I’m not sure because it.probably didn’t need to go 8 years. It’s the same lesson over and over and over. Choose your friends wisely. Sometimes friendships aren’t about simpatico but about common, basic interests. Never let your guard down. Expect disappointment. Sometimes choosing the right thing is the thing is the hardest and means putting your own ass on the line, no matter the risk. No matter what.

The characters are compelling enough. They are fallible. They are human. They make mistakes and often try to make it right. Everybody has a job. Everybody has a mission. Nobody can make it on their own.

Maybe that’s what has kept it going for so long. Maybe that’s why audiences have become so invested in the endless cycle of loss and near but never salvation. Or maybe like me they keep going waiting for some happy ending that is unlikely to happen. I’m a little more than halfway through and I’m kind of running out of hope. It’s not that the cycle is tedious so much as it’s emotionally exhausting knowing that the conclusion is nowhere in sight.

That’s exactly how I felt about my own memoir. Not that the text always has to come back around to me either but the similarity is too obvious to ignore. No end in sight and no redemption is no way to keep going. It’s nothing to pass on anyway. To continue to look for good in one’s own life despite anything you go through, and to trust thst it can happen, well that’s different. Where Walking Dead beats out my own story is that in no place written did I express that I’ve continued to look, and I have.

I have.

Most viewers have probably asked themselves also, how far they’d be willing to go to survive. Fewer have considered whether those lengths would include sacrificing other people for their own comfort and survival even though they have most likely already done so in a non zombie world. To a lesser degree yes, but we’ve all done it. No question about that. I have.

I’m losing track here though. I’ll probably have more thoughts. Another that comes to mind right now is what circumstances might it take for any of us to question and forego moral codes we’ve always held sacrosanct. People do it for a lot less than survival of the mortal body. But some of those beliefs were always bullshit anyway.

Question your own bullshit. Will you rise to meet your own noble words? Will you fail? Etc.

Right now though I need to clean up. Not sure if today is going to be a work day or an ER day. Either way I should wear clean skivvies.