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Dear friends,
It’s October, my favorite month. The mood here is the most cautious of optimism, all of us wondering if our fragile hopes for normality will be dashed once again. This month I drew blog inspiration from an unlikely source- the movie Zombieland, which I just saw for the first time. Quarantine has led me to be more flexible about movie night at home. It’s hardly a cinematic masterpiece, but I did like the protagonist’s Rules for Survival. As I watched it, I couldn’t help thinking that some of the Zombieland Rules apply in our world too.
#1: Cardio: In the movie, you need to be in shape to run from zombies. In our world, exercise is often the only way to manage your mood. I doubt I would have survived without it.
#2: Double Tap: Shoot zombies twice to make sure they’re really dead. When the stakes are high, don’t assume you’re done and safe. To me, this is that step where you pore line-by-line over the assembled pdf of a grant before the grants’ office hits the submit button. I would rather contend with an invasion of the undead than an NIH post-submission administrative rejection!
#4: Seatbelts: Other characters laugh at the narrator for wearing a seat belt during the apocalypse, but he turns out to be right. Even when the world is falling apart in so many ways, mundane hazards still exist and require sensible behavior.
#7: Travel light. I’ll let the movie speak for itself: “Traveling light in Zombieland doesn’t just refer to your luggage, it also refers to your baggage. Ooh, deep.” Try to set aside some of your emotional burdens (such as unrealistic expectations of yourself) in order to get through this time.
#32: Enjoy the little things. A self-explanatory rule worth remembering. In dark times, small joys matter, as Woody Harrelson’s character’s quest for a Twinkie vividly reminds us.
I hope these pandemic rules brighten your October. If you are craving more substantive advice, I have a book recommendation: Four Thousand Weeks, Time Management for Mortals, by Oliver Burkeman. This book has had a profound influence on how I think about and manage my time. I may discuss it in a future post, and I recommend it highly.
As always, please keep in touch and share good news so I can amplify your successes. Feel free to send this email along to a friend. You can subscribe at the bottom of the page. Be well and safe!
Warmly,
Urmimala