A Beautiful Redemption

I was sick (again) Monday. (There are a lot of diseased people and I wonder why I always come across them.)  So instead of having fun playing laser tag and racing go-carts, I was home in my jammies, on the couch, loaded with tissues.

And watching zombie movies.

I noticed a recurrent theme: virus outbreak, a few characters band together for survival, some good people die and the end is always indeterminate. While I'm sure this would truly be the case if a zombie event broke out, it got tedious with the same story line.

Maybe that's why I liked the movie Warm Bodies so much; it offered the zombies who still had a smidgen of their humanity left a chance to redeem themselves. I'm a firm believer in redemption. Humanity, while capable of such horrors as enslavement, genocide, and heartlessness, is also capable of selfless love, generosity, and sacrifice. I've seen it: Superstorm Sandy relief, a person donating a kidney to a co-worker, all those people who check off  'Organ Donor' on their license.

But you have to want redemption, like R in Warm Bodies; it doesn't just come free. Some people have to come a long way for it, but they do it. Others, like serial killer Eileen Wuournos, blamed their victims for their murderous acts, never once taking responsibility, the first step toward redemption.

I think I've seen enough zombie movies for the rest of my life, although I will watch Warm Bodies again. I think we all have something for which we need a little redemption.

So I think I will go do some redeeming things today, including working on my manuscript (it has to have some redeeming qualities...). How about you?

Char