Simplicity in the Time of Zombies

As some of you may know, the staff of the Utah Society of Environmental Education (USEE, where I work) is working toward simplifying our lives, not just at home and pertaining to the environment, but in the office as well. We discuss issues that come up in our lives on an almost daily basis, have been participating in the USEE Discussion Course - Voluntary Simplicity, and also have read the book Getting Things Done by David Allen to try and streamline our days in the office.

Simplification is on my mind always, and also seems to be more and more of a trend lately. Whether it is to relax a bit in your life, to save money, to free up time for other things, etc, simplification is a good idea to consider and has been popping up everywhere.

A most unexpected place I read about simplification was on the back of a book about Zombies called The Walking Dead (by Robert Kirkham and published by Imagecomics. Something you may not know is that the USEE office likes Zombie literature... well, Jason and I do, and we are trying to convert Nicole. Here is the quote.

"How many hours are in a day when you don't spend half of them watching television?

When is the last time any of us REALLY worked to get something that we wanted?

How long has it been since any of us really NEEDED something that we WANTED?

The world we knew is gone. The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe causing the dead to rise and feed on the living. In a matter of months society has crumbled, no government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, no cable TV.

In a world ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living."

I know it may seem a little silly with the zombies and all, but simplification may not only be beneficial for us in the present time, but also for whatever the future has in store. Personally, I'm not going to wait until the Zombies come before I start living. :)