Thinking Like Zombies

Zombie movies, TV shows, costumes (even zombie weddings!) are a $5.4 billion dollar industry, according to the Wall Street Journal. Why? I am interested in what the zombie phenomenon says about our fears: epidemics, the complexity of our society, social dislocation, and those we don't understand. In this sermon I explore the zombie motif, with the help of Anishnabe writer Robin Wall Kimmerer, whose exploration of the First Nations stories of the Windigo suggest that the footsteps of the Windigo are everywhere in our consumer ecomony. We think like the Windigo (or Zombies) when we consume vocaciously, without every being satisfied. To stop thinking like Zombies, we have to challenge the assumptions of scarcity so prevelant in our culture and economy, cultivate an awareness of abundance and an economy of sharing.