Post-Apocalyptia

I think I missed something while in China.

I was at Barnes & Noble the other day and trying to catch up on 4 years of missing out on contemporary literature when I came across an interesting phenomenon. While browsing the teen fiction aisle they had the books neatly organized into 3 sections.

The first category was “Fantasy”. No surprise. Ever since paper was invented authors have penned stories of fantasy. Tolkein, Lewis, and the modern day Rowling have taken readers to lands that only exist in books. The real name of this section should be the “Harry Potter spinoff” section.

Section #2 was entitled “Teen Paranormal Romance” – the Twilight section and its spinoffs. I did not miss this phenomenon. It made its way to China. If the Chinese so desire they can buy bootlegged copies of the vampire romance trilogy (or are there 4 of them?) in English or Chinese on many street corners in Beijing. Because most “artists” lack creativity we all knew that the vampire genre would explode. Zombies (I personally don’t really understand this one) I assume would be considered a subcategory of this section. If I am missing something, please feel free to comment below, but I don’t understand authors can keep churning out stories of humans falling in love with vampires and vampires falling in love with vampires, and zombies falling in love with humans, and vampires falling in love with zombies, and publishers keep publishing them.

The third category was titled “Post Apocalyptic.” Let’s call this the Hunger Games category.

Living in China I have completely missed out on this global intrigue. Sure, the Hunger Games made it to China, albeit the movie was released there months after it was released in the States, but the fascination with the end of world did not reach China. Upon returning to America in July I was shocked to see that this genre now necessitates its own section at B&N.

I probably shouldn’t be too surprised. I mean after all, it has its own subcategory in Scripture, but that was almost 2,000 years ago, and why didn’t people bite on the Apostle John’s style sooner? After all, it is a quite entertaining read. I have thought about America’s newfound fascination with the end of the world and what follows are some my scattered and non-cohesive thoughts on the matter.

The western fascination skipped China because a) their culture is not steeped in biblical tradition , and b) they have just begun their industrial revolution and are really enjoying the benefits of their newfound wealth - they think the world is getting better, not falling apart.

I wonder out loud - would we still have this fascination if Glenn Beck were not on the radio?

Here is my main point – Maybe deep down inside people really want a Revolution style, no electricity, farm your own food, unplug your life sort of lifestyle. Could it be that we are so connected, so informed, so wired that it is begin to ruin us, and make us long for the “good ol’ days” when we actually read a book, walked somewhere, talked on the phone (or better yet, talked across the fence to the neighbor Tim Taylor and Wilson style)? To be sure, the ruling parties in the Hunger Games, the book of Revelation, and NBC’s Revolution are not anything to look forward to, but what if we could voluntarily turn off the power switch, live simpler, create more margins in our lives?

As we were preparing to move to China we sold most of our earthly possessions. What was left we either put in storage in my in-laws’ attic or took with us on the airplane. In this process I became angry at my stuff - it had become a burden. As we lived in China we lived very different lives than we did when we lived in suburbia. Our kids were not involved in as many activities, they didn’t have school stuff because they were homeschooled, our church didn’t have as many programs, and our apartment didn’t require near as much attention as our suburban home. Our lives were simple. As we were preparing to move back to America we decided to intentionally live simpler lives. I am glad we don’t have a garage or basement in our new apartment because now I cannot accumulate. Our church (which is a new church plant without our own building) has stated that they will not fill the calendar with programs so that we can have more margin in our lives to live on mission. My kids will do some activity, probably a sport or a club, but I don’t ever want to get to the point of them doing multiple activities.

So far it is working out great. We have free nights during the week where we can have friends over (as soon as we find some friends), or neighbors. Our weekends are free to travel and visit family, take it easy, enjoy being together. We go to a small group at our church and it is a joy, not something I go to wishing I was at home having the night off.

My new mission – encourage people to slow their lives down. I am giving you permission to say no, to simplify, to unplug, to create margins. You can tell your boss, your kids, your pastor, or your spouse that I told you to, that you have my permission. If they give you grief, then tell them to call me.

For goodness sake, for your health’s sake, for your family’s sake, slow down people! If you find yourself watching Katniss bowhunt and being jealous of the beautiful simplicity of it, or if you get really excited when the lights go out during a thunderstorm and your family is forced to play Clue in the candlelight, or if you have considered applying for Survivor season 348 just for the escape of it, then maybe it is time that you voluntarily scaled it back a bit. You will thank me later.

Comments

  1. Very well said and something I just had a conversation about before church this morning!

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