zombies

Deion Sanders' instagram is a well of inspiration and motivation. It's also hilarious. 

When making football picks, he'll mention one of the week's crucial NFL games and say who's gonna win and why. But for those non-crucial games, he turns to the camera and says, "ain't nobody care" and moves on. 

Funny because it's true. But as I go through a week after hearing that, I can't get the words out of my head: ain't nobody care.

One of those weeks was the last week for character Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead. In his last episode (no earthshaking spoilers ahead) Rick is wounded. The wound is cartoonishly large and should've taken him out instantly, but it's his epic exit - no time for logic - so our hero moves on.

In his blood loss-induced delirium, Rick keeps seeing people he knows and they each ask, "What is your wound?" 

View this post on Instagram

Prime Picks! @nflnetwork #GamedayPrime “AINT NOBODY CARE”#Truth

A post shared by PRIME (@deionsanders) on Nov 18, 2018 at 10:08am PST

Rick talks with each one.  He's uninjured, calm, and deep in conversation until the person tells him to "WAKE UP!", which snaps him back to consciousness, still bleeding and surrounded by zombies he must somehow escape.

For me, the last three years have been like Rick Grime's lucid dream. Surrounded by zombies growling: "REeeedddddd!" "BLuuuuueeeee!" "WALLLLLL!" "HEALTH CARRRRRRE!" 

Nobody listening. Just growling.

Even when you have a meaningful conversation, it ends with the growling. We can't talk without the growling. What is your wound, America? Cartoonishly large and might still take us out:

Ain't. No. Body. CARE.

Nobody cares why the football player kneels, or why the small business owner hates minimum wage. Why does the farmer wear a MAGA hat, or that woman wear a pink knit hat? Ain't nobody care. We don't agree; you're dead to me. A zombie, the enemy. I don't have to hear. Only fight.

And that's in the church.

Digital version of the flyers received by the church.

I work at a church and these flyers came in the mail, 2nd day air, the week before the last Sunday of the 2018 election. This particular church did not distribute them, but they are sized to be placed in the church bulletin.  Republican voting issues are listed using Republican phrases.  It's not subtle -- if you're Christian you should vote Republican.

After these inserts arrived, someone mentioned them in an article on the church denomination's news site.  An influential pastor wrote that he'd spent the week sending these out.  I've read him before.  In other posts, he's wondered why his denomination is not more diverse.  I think he genuinely wants to know, but not in a way that would challenge his part in  detours like this.  Not in a way that would wake him up to the uncaring language of this document, or its part in our national wound.

I stumbled across this piece by Bach recently.  It's called Wachet Auf, or Sleeper Awake. It has been my holiday music during a stressful time.  Its lyrics are a call to the church to remember what's important, that Jesus is coming back.  This is an instrumental version below, but maybe it fits here.