by Barbara A. Black

Created on: October 20, 2008

There are really only a few things that are actually necessary to life. The main ones are food, drink, air, shelter, and clothing. Family and/or friends make life more enjoyable. Work of some kind is also a necessity, because without work, a person will get out of shape and not be able to enjoy his/her life. So these are probably the most basic needs of every human being.

Food, of course, is the main building block of everyone's continuing existence. Without food, and enough of the proper vitamins and minerals provided by the food (or, in case of a lack in the food, by pills or shots), we could not continue to exist. So food is definitely a necessity. Even the cavemen needed food, and went out and hunted it, in the shape of natural vegetation and the animals they could manage to kill with their primitive weapons. Today, we go to the store and buy food, either ready-to-eat or to cook and serve. Either way, we get our food regularly.

Water is basic to life. Many people no longer drink plain water, but any beverage they drink helps, in one way or another, to fulfill the requirement for water. Water or other liquids keep our body's fluid levels even, and that way, we can continue to do the things we need to do as well as the things we enjoy doing.

Air is even more basic than food and water. Without air, we could not survive, because our bodies are designed to use nothing but air as a life source. If the air is kept away from even the strongest person alive for just a few minutes, that person will smother from lack of oxygen-the major component of air that our bodies use.

Shelter is important, also. Our bodies are not covered with fur to keep us warm in the cold seasons, nor do we shed our skins in the warmer seasons. We are not built to live without some kind of shelter to keep the sun from scorching our skins or to keep the sleet, hail, and/or snow from pelting us and freezing us from the outside inward. Because we need shelter, we build houses, just as the caveman sheltered under overhangings of stone or in trees if he could not find any other shelter.

Along with shelter, the caveman decided that clothing was a necessity. Even with shelter and fire, he could not stay warm when it was freezing cold, and if he had to venture from his shelter, he needed protection for his body. His environment did not provide much protection; therefore, he had to come up with a way to provide cover for his body to help keep the heat in so he wouldn't freeze to death. So he created clothing,

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