What is the Deal with Zombies?
As I was driving in downtown Minneapolis Saturday night, after a marching band competition at the Metrodome, and I ended up in the midst of the Zombie Bar Crawl. Envision the packed streets during the state fair... only filled with zombies. Quite an experience!!! After the the initial shock and awe... I reflected... Why are 20-somethings so intrigued with zombies? So, I did a little research.....
"Though many people treat the current “zombie apocalypse” as a
fun pop culture meme, it’s important to realize that some people believe
zombies are very real. Haitian culture — like many African cultures —
is heavily steeped in belief in magic and witchcraft. Belief in zombies
is related to the Voodoo religion, and has been widespread throughout
Haiti for decades. The existence of zombies is not questioned, though
believers would not recognize the sensational, Hollywood brain-eating
version that most Americans are familiar with." From University of Michigan, "Considering that zombies of
the reanimated variety are nothing more than moving corpses, they come to embody
the human fear of our own dead tissue. We, as humans, go to great lengths to
obscure the remains of our dead. (University of Michigan)
My own perspective? I think 20-somethings need a way to let loose and have fun and since they are too old to trick or treat, dressing up like a zombie is an outlet. In light of the government shutdown (thank goodness it is over), mid-terms, and other stressors they may have.... it is just gory fun. What do you think?
Kelli Swazey: Life that doesn't end with death
I watched Kelli Swazey's TED Talk the same week as the Zombie Bar Crawl. I hesitate to even share this TED Talk in the same blog for in no way do I want to appear disrespectful to the rituals around death in Indonesia - but it so related to the comment made above about our culture's fear of death. As family educators we deal with death in many ways in our programming, especially from financial, emotional, and familial perspectives. So, provide yourself some professional development on how another culture handles death. The photo to the right is of an Indonesia family, both living and deceased. I think you will find the TED Talk fascinating. "In Tana Toraja, weddings and births aren’t the social gatherings that
knit society together. In this part of Indonesia, big, raucous funerals
form the center of social life. Anthropologist Kelli Swazey takes a look
at this culture, in which the bodies of dead relatives are cared for
even years after they have passed. While it sounds strange to Western
sensibilities, she says, this could actually be a truer reflection of
the fact that relationships with loved ones don’t simply end when
breathing does." What rituals come to mind for you and how do they help or hinder? (use the blog feature below to comment)Krokodil -Flesh-eating 'zombie' drug 'kills you from the inside out'
(CNN) -- A flesh-eating drug that turns people into zombie-like creatures seems to have made its way to the United States. This extremely addictive injectable opioid is called krokodil (pronounced like crocodile) or desomorphine. It's so named in part because users report black or green scaly skin as a side effect. This weekend five people were hospitalized in the Chicago suburb of Joliet, Illinois, with symptoms similar to cases reported recently by health care providers in Arizona and Oklahoma.
Save the Date: MN Smart Choice Training Workshop
So, now ready to think Health Insurance?
I am planning that ALL FRM educators & Brianna will attend the training and in turn implement the Smart Choice Curriculum. The web site for sign up will be up early next week. We will provide a "coupon code" for you to use for registration.
Bonnie Braun from the University of Maryland will be coming to Minnesota to conduct a training of the Smart Choice Health Insurance curriculum on Nov.12th & 13th at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Please see details below. Information about about registration will be sent out next week. Please let me know if you have questions. Thank you! Mary Jo
The Details:
Smart Choice Health Insurance© is the first release of a multi-part consumer education program including the new Ask an Expert. Smart Choice is a research and theory-based, consumer-tested curriculum designed to reduce confusion and increase capability and confidence among consumers making health insurance plan choices. It is applicable to both current health insurance consumers and those who are newly-eligible through the Affordable Care Act providing Extension with a teachable moment when most consumers are attuned to health insurance decisions.
Smart Choice Health Insurance is the product of a multi-state Health Insurance Literacy Team, led by the University of Maryland Extension and the University of Delaware Extension with funding from the University of Maryland Extension and College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Smart Choice Health Insurance©, with its standardized measures of health insurance literacy, enables Extension to offer an evidence-based curriculum. The nationally validated measures were created and tested by the American Institutes for Research.
By participating in the workshop, participants will receive the following benefits:
- Access to the Educators Toolkit
- Consultation with teaching team
- Updated and new information
- Data compiled and returned in comparative reports
- Tuesday, November 12 (11 am to 5 pm) – lunch included, dinner on own
- Wednesday, November 13 (8 am - 2:30 pm) - breakfast and lunch included
