Use your brain or someone uses it for you.

I never got into the whole Zombie rage. I just know, that for quite some time, Zombie Shows became wildly popular on TV. I think the one that everyone liked was “The Walking Dead” or “I’m a Zombie, How ‘bout you?”

Something. I don’t even really know the premise of a Zombie. Like, how they come to be? If you look the word up in the Dictionary (which I frequently do with many words, whether I know them or not) you will find a couple of things about the Zombie.
1. a corpse said to be revived by witchcraft, especially in certain African and Caribbean religions.
OR
2. a tall mixed drink consisting of several kinds of rum, liqueur, and fruit juice.

I think the shows are about the former, though, I don’t get the feeling that the witchcraft from Africa has come into play. However, drinking may be involved.

Anyway, I am thinking about all this, because, it seem a bit preposterous. I’ve seen dead people. And while I believe that the Spirit goes on and on and on, I think the body is done. Done, done, done, once it is dead. Scientifically, I know this to be true.

Until this morning.

I read an article about Fungi. Yes. But it is Zombie Fungi, I think. It is the tropical fungus Ophiocordyceps. O-phio-cord-y-ceps. Easy enough to say. But it resides mostly in Tropical Forests. And here is what it does.

This fungus infects an ant’s central nervous systems. Other insects too. I don’t know how it gets in there, but it does. And then it takes over. Yes. By the time the fungi been in the insect bodies for nine days, those fungi have complete control over the host’s movements. Oh, sure, the scientists call those poor ants “hosts” like they asked the fungi over for dinner or something. Like they wore little white dinner jackets with black ties, and handed around hors d’oeuvres on tiny silver platters. But they aren’t hosts. They are victims if you ask me.

Anyway. Back to Fungus Central.

The fungi take over the ants brains. And then, they force those ants to climb trees. They they make them convulse. And then the ants fall into the cool, moist soil below. Yep. And THAT is where fungi thrive.

Here’s the end of things, where we have the helpless ant lying in the moist dirt. Once there, the fungus waits until exactly solar noon. Then, at high noon, they force the ant to bite a leaf and kill it. I’m not sure what the leaf has to do with the price of tea in China. But apparently, that is the final blow.

Now, if a little bit of this Fungus can do this to ants, imagine what a lot of this Fungus could do to humans. Taking over our minds. Forcing us to climb trees and convulse and such. Having no control over our otherwise perfectly nice human selves.

I think it best we stay out of tropical forests.

And there it is. Another perfect example of our life lessons.

There are things in the world that are just Zombie-Fungi-Bad. The trick is, being on the right side of that thing. Sometimes, we are the ant, and we just don’t have any idea. And other times, we are the person reading the article from Science Digest. Sometimes, we have the view from the omniscient side. Other times, our vista is small, and unknowing.

We’ve seen it happen in all sorts of ways. In our own lives and in others. Historically, one that stands out to me is Nazi Germany. The Allies knew this was terribly wrong and fought to correct it. The Nazi-supporting-citizens thought they were being Patriotic to Hitler, their leader. And the Zombie-Fungus took over their brains.

I’ll say it again.
It is best we stay out of those tropical forests where the fungi thrive.

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“Be wise today so you don’t cry tomorrow.”
― E.A. Bucchianeri

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“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this – you haven’t.”
― Thomas Edison

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“Hey Jude, don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better.”
― The Beatles

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