JustWalt's Mental Meanderings: Hold On To Your Brains--It's Zombie Awareness Month

I don’t remember where I first came across this online but I remember that my reaction to it was (and this is a direct quote), “Hmmmmpf.” And I proceeded to check it out in a little more detail.

It seems like there’s a special month in the calendar for just about everything. Here’s the list just for May (source McGraw/Hill Professional). Oh, it's a long list so just listen to the music and scroll through:

May
• Allergy/Asthma Awareness Month, Natl
• Arthritis Month, Natl
• Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month
• Awareness of Medical Orphans Month
• Barbecue Month, Natl
• Better Hearing and Speech Month
• Bike Month, Natl
• Business Image Improvement Month, Intl
• Civility Month, Intl
• Creative Beginnings Month
• Ecodriving Month
• Egg Month, Natl
• Family Wellness Month
• Fibromyalgia Education and Awareness Month
• Freedom Shrine Month
• Get Caught Reading Month
• Gifts From the Garden Month
• Good Car-Keeping Month, Natl
• Haitian Heritage Month
• Hamburger Month, Natl
• Heal the Children Month
• Healthy Vision Month
• Hepatitis Awareness Month, Natl
• Huntington's Disease Awareness Month
• Internal Audit Awareness Month, Intl
• Jewish American Heritage Month
• Latino Books Month
• Meditation Month, Natl
• Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month
• Mental Health Month, Natl
• Military Appreciation Month, Natl
• Motorcycle Safety Month
• Moving Month, Natl
• Older Americans Month
• Osteoporosis Awareness and Prevention Month
• Personal History Month
• Photo Month, Natl
• Physical Fitness and Sports Month, Natl
• Preservation Month, Natl
• REACT Month
• Revise Your Work Schedule Month
• Salad Month, Natl
• Salsa Month, Natl
• Smile Month, Natl
• Strike Out Strokes Month
• Stroke Awareness Month, Natl
• Sweet Vidalia Onion Month, Natl
• Teen CEO Month
• Teen Self-Esteem Month

• Tennis Month
• Ultraviolet Awareness Month
• Victorious Woman Month, Intl
• Vinegar Month, Natl
• Women's Health Care Month
• Young Achievers/Leaders of Tomorrow Month

Now that’s a lot of stuff for just one month. And I noticed that there is a conspicuous absence—the “awareness month” I stumbled across.

Zombie Awareness Month
To quote Dave Barry, “I’m not making this up.”

Zombie Awareness Month is sponsored by the Zombie Research Society. They urge people to wear a gray ribbon “to signify the undead shadows that lurk behind our modern light of day.” Here’s a summary from their website (www.zombieresearch.org):

Founded in 2007, the Zombie Research Society (ZRS) is dedicated to raising the level of zombie scholarship in the Arts and Sciences. ZRS Members represent diverse backgrounds, interests, and theories, but are unified in their support of the Society's three foundational principles:

• A zombie is a biologically definable, animated being occupying a human corpse.
• The zombie pandemic is coming. It's not a matter of if, but a matter of when.
• Enthusiastic debate about zombies is essential to the survival of the human race.

Additional research that I did turned up a number of helpful sites to combat the predicted scurge of Zombies. Here’s a hint from the UK:

Now, I’m assuming that this is all tongue in cheek. Or maybe I’m hoping it is. But geez when you start Googling zombies and zombie research and zombie appreciation you come up with a lot of stuff that can keep you reading and zooming around the internet for hours.

And there’s even a rationale for having Zombie Awareness Month in May. Most would assume that a month to raise awareness of zombies would be in October because of Halloween. But the Zombie Research Society has determined (somehow) that most Zombie movies are set in May so this is the month they selected.

You can find helpful hints on identifying Zombies:

And some of the information is motivational—you know, like those dumb-ass posters that bosses still like to hang up and then congratulate themselves on how enlightened they are (I have one in my office right behind my desk).

And interestingly, some of the information is political. I have seen articles which suggest that Zombies are some sort of global political and economic conspiracy and also suggestions that some Zombies are cleverly disguised and much more insidious in their quest to consume the human race. But, quite frankly, I discounted those “suggestions” as the unrealistic fantasies of someone who has just seen too many Zombie movies over the years. Until…well, look for yourself: