It is amazing that all people who came before us have managed to do without most of what we have today. But we would probably be quite miserable without things that were not even around twenty years ago. It all seems to be relative. What we consider to be necessities of life, our parents consider to be luxuries, and our grandparents would consider to be vast wealth.

Our concept of the necessities of life are incredibly different, depending on how much, and what it is that we can afford to lose before we no longer have the ability or will to survive. For some, the loss of a fabulous career and all of the trappings of wealth is enough to cause a lack of will to survive. For others, horrific loss of family, property, and other hardship does not stop them from continuing the struggle to stay alive.

The necessities of life are those that sustain life: food, water, clothing, and shelter from the elements. We also need protection: from animal predators, human enemies, and natural disasters. We need physical and mental health, so that we can do the labors needed to get food, maintain our shelter, and keep a strong will to survive during disasters, loss and setbacks.

It is awesome to go to a place that is in a completely natural state, and to imagine how our ancestors would have lived there. It is awesome to listen to the elderly as they talk about their lifestyles. Imagine cooking the most delicate pastries and biscuits on a wood fired stove. We cannot understand how such specific required temperatures could be maintained without a large dial that has numbers on it.

When we talk about the intangibles that a person cannot live without: romantic love, family, friends, and firm beliefs that resolve the worst of tragedies. We talk about status and satisfaction. But then, it is easy to think of people who do not have all of those things, and who still live to ripe old ages. (Perhaps not having all of those things is what keeps them alive much longer!)

We talk about things that would kill us, cause us to give up, or cause us to kill ourselves if we did not have them. Yet immediately, we can think of people who have suffered horribly from lost limbs, children, soul mates, their senses, their health and their ability to make an income. But they still have the will to live.

The term "necessities of life", excluding the bare needs that sustain life, is one which differs from person to person in a household and throughout this vastly populated world. But the universal intangible necessity is the will to live.

Learn more about this author, Elizabeth M. Young.
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