Living by Necessity

It is good to remember the interesting fact that there is no pleasure in living by necessity when you do have the opportunity to choose how you wish live your life. In such a case, real-life daily survival is the primary essence than making choices and selections base on different opportunities. But one important factor in all of this is the essential element of having hope, and to another extent, courage.

When someone lives by necessity, his/her place of dwelling or home does not exist by choice, but because little or no alternatives are really available. Real "hand-to-mouth" poor living is the reality of the day. They do not have the pleasure of seeking a better place to rent or own by mortgage. They just have to take-it or leave-it as far as living in a slum concerned. There is no real choice, because real alternatives do not exist, but similar situations that are physically available elsewhere. Some may express the opinion that it is the fault of the person facing such as an unpleasant situation, but compassion may not be the best of human relations that crosses someone mind when they think and speak that way.

The fact and reality in many real-life people daily living is that, they do not have the family inherited financial security, salary from a good job, support from City or State financial agencies, for examples, and such alike, as means of real opportunities and alternatives to their present life situations. They often do not possess the mental and physical abilities necessary to do a related job to the satisfaction of their employers or contracted officials. They simple live day-to-day base on whatever means are available to them. The issues of school drop-out, drugs abuse, crime (such as prostitution) and others may seem to be the cause and possible alternatives to some, but this will often make a bad situation worse. So then comes hope. Hope that someone or government officials will see their plight and do something for them. Hope that a "good Samaritan" (such as The Sunday Breakfast Mission or Salvation Army Organization, and others) will open their eyes and see the need to help, when all else fails to do so. But hope often does not pay bills, provide proper shelter or feed the flesh with food. But if there is no hope then there's often little or no need to continue living, and that borders on the unthinkable act of suicide or starvation. So hope is real-life importance especially to those who need to know that hope is real, not a fairy-tail mentality.

The courage to have hope is another matter. We all need a job to earn a living (money) or need to have the blessed rich financial resources of the family wealth passed-down through generations available to us. If this is not available and the other means are not in existence, then something has to be done. Courage to get-up, stand-up and fight is not the norm for someone who is chronically in the slums and often have no real choice, just the need to accept what's available. But to use whatever political, legal, social, financial and other factors available to you base on the state you are in, takes courage. To strongly and mentally decide not to dip into crime, drugs, prostitution, gangs warfare, the abusing of others, and other such "evils" of modern society and real living, takes courage. Courage to may the best of what are now available and to make someone help and do something to get you out of the state of the living-dead.

Friends and families can disappear as quickly as the wind when the requirement of helping someone in the family who has ended-up in the slum or in need occurs. There are normal exceptions to this. But in reality, many will see the needs of their own life-situation and not that of the family or friends. There have been many cases and examples of family "abandoning" each other and children for the most simple of reasons. Then only to see them claim to be the father (in most cases) and mother or relatives of someone when they have risen to prosperity through, hope, courage and kindness of strangers. How and why they behave that way are the fascination of sociologists, psychologists and anthropologists studying human societies, behavior and culture. But the victim of their unkind deeds in time of need will not concern themselves with educated scientist theories, but with what was, could have been and had happened because of the "evil" of real people, family and friends. An essential principle of forgiveness must be encouraged here and practiced in real life in order not to make a situation worse or to re-occur.

There are endless examples of the above that are real and in abundance for all to know. Living by necessity than from real choice, is no pleasant matter when the good options are not readily there. That is why hope is often the only and best friend available to those who are really in need, and on a daily basis. Courage to avoid greater dangers and evils is a must if those who are in the slum are to survive and come-out without too much of a nasty or crime-oriented background, or at all. Sometimes all they really need to get back on their feet again is a real choice or opportunity to make their lives right. This should then be the focus of their hope.
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