The Walking Dead : Zombie Catharsis

It has been an unusually cold winter so far, with extreme temperatures in many places, here,
in the Northern Plains, and now in the deep South, in places like Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas.
I am at the beginning of Season Five now in The Walking Dead TV series, and the story and characters only are deepening and increasing in richness and complexity. The challenges and setbacks the richly layered story has the actors deal with is now adding a new dimension of humanity, warmth, determination and tenacity under excruciatingly difficult circumstances that seem to encompass all the horrors of war, cruelty, genocide, greed and power. The world right now seems to be at the precipice of a very dangerous drop into a potentially disastrous level of worldwide conflicts reminiscent of World War I and more poignantly World War II. The Walking Dead touches very graphically on all the gruesome aspects of an apocalyptic war, as Carol ( Melissa McBride) has to save what is left of Rick ( Andrew Lincoln) 's group from a monstrous compound where the leaders are actively conducting a selective genocide that is a chilling echo of the monstrosities the Nazis perpetrated against the Jews. Carol, who had been excommunicated from the group for a transgression Rick thought was unforgivable, single handed saves everyone in an act of formidable courage and resourcefulness, and is as a result forgiven by him and the entire group. It was a powerful moment of catharsis, of transcendence on her part and on the part of the group as to the standard definitions of right and wrong in the face of impossibly twisted circumstances and dilemmas. It is a cliche that war brings out the worst and the best in people. But in war, the lines are stretched beyond what good and evil encompass, what they each can bear. I have lost a lot of close family, under absurd and tragic circumstances, and I found myself getting renewed strength and insight and dignity watching Carol's struggles and the very brave and bold decisions she finds the heart to make, as a woman who previously had no voice, no presence as the wife of a vulgar, brutish and physically abusive husband. She voices the change very succinctly : " No, that was not my shadow, just my husband's." She becomes free, free to act and be strong, decisive,
courageous, unafraid. I know it was a struggle for me to get from underneath the shadow I felt trapped under by my manipulative and alcoholic mother, and I remember the thrill of standing up to her, to call her on her lies and games, and to just say " NO" to her and some of the other members in my family who thought I was just putty for their manipulations. I felt a strength wake up in me, one that has only gotten more determined with these last ten years. It was an awakening, that got me to start writing, to stand on my own unafraid, my own person at last. My declaration of independence was met with insults, threats and contempt, but the price of rejection  and its resultant solitude was well worth my dignity and humanity, my self determination and freedom. The Walking Dead does a wonderful job showing how people can claim their freedom, their courage, their heart, their destiny in the face of circumstances that do everything to tear down that determination, that desire, that basic human right. The ugliness of the endless zombies and their distorted, twisted faces, sounds and bodies I have come to see as a symbol to transcend, to reach our hopes and dreams regardless of, in spite of, and sometimes even, because of the nightmare that pushes us beyond what we can endure, to break free, renewed, bruised and worn out, but exhilarated at the realization we came out of the horror alive, wiser, kinder, stronger. The Walking Dead is ultimately about hope and its necessity if we are to live free and with dignity. I so look forward to what other lessons I will learn as the series and its characters keep moving forward, always fearless no matter what monsters, dead or alive, might be lurking about.