Nothing to Live For

When each day drearily unfolds exactly as the last day, unremittingly, never changing, the same lack of options, the self same lack of certainty of food, lack of warmth, lack of change of clothes, life is miserable. When you cannot afford to be with friends, or worse old friends shun you, because you are not able to keep up with their exploits, then life is deeply despondent. When you mooch around waiting for those endless minutes to pass, you see and watch from outside all those other people, people just like you but better off, able to have nice things to use, able to mix and buy stuff with or for each other, able to have friends and make plans together. Without it life is worthless, there is nothing to live for. For why? You never had their chances, maybe a stable home, progress to higher education, opportunity to prove you can do better the next person, someone to confirm that you are doing okay or any combination of some or all of the above if nothing more extreme.

The one missing ingredient above all else is, hope. With hope that makes tomorrow a possibility. Without hope life is not worth living. If life is not worth living any other options becomes attractive even addictive. To shoplift, steal, joyride or just wreck whatever. Gain some local pride or notoriety and join a gang to graffiti your presence in the world and intimidate those not of your group. Or surrender to terrorism, get swept up in a cult where you at last have recognition and cadre amongst your own kind. A chance to gain hope even though in a hopeless endgame!

Hope requires so little yet can surmount so much. A helping hand, even that is more than needed, just a chance to change some small aspect of tomorrow is a starting point. A point from when hope can at last flicker back into being and with care can be fanned into a strong desire. Yet we, all of us, that have, have to give so there can be hope. A sustainable hope that is not extinguished by the very next stumble. With hope we can save all those around us, living amongst, that have lost the will to live. We just need to get back to a fair and equitable life style where everyone of us can hope to succeed. Where success does not depend on your pocket, or your families wealth or connections but simply on your ability and willingness to try. Now that gives me hope

Being Accountable

Let me clarify. I do not believe in free enterprise. Our human desires and the consequences of achieving those desires requires to be tempered, we each have to exercise restraint. Or have restraint imposed on us. Neither do I believe in some centralised state control, equality for all. We are all too varied in our needs, access to resources and aspirations. No, what I been flogging over many of these blogs is the need to get back to belonging to a community. A caring community that is accountable and responsible to those that relate to it. A community that is meaningful and able to better the quality of life for each of us that belong to it. In this globalised world we exist within, this matrix society, we may belong to a duplicity of communities with varying degrees of weak to very strong bonds. Our membership maybe often be transitory but in key communities membership is non-cancellable, it is lifelong. Our life has to governed by the communities we bond with, with the obligations, responsibilities and expectations that their membership entails. You cannot be honourable and a freebooter. Holding your head up amongst your peers seems to be a core value requisite in each of us as members of a civilised society. Whichever way you frame it, membership has its price but also returns in kind.

Tythings I knew of as a word. I have just finished a book where, for the first time, I encountered an explanation where the full significance dawned. A tything was a medieval unit of ten households where the heads of house looked out for each other head of house and was held to account for any misdoings by anyone within that tything. Not just his own household but anyone properly tied to the group. A collective reprimand for any one individuals failings but also a caring supportive framework for each group member. An automatic support response, regardless of status, wealth or worthiness, just dependant on degree of need.

In arriving at a new definition of community, relevant to our century, we too could do with a tything concept. A core group we are responsible and accountable too. A group of peers bound by familiar circumstances and backgrounds. Able to relate, respond and reprimand as the occasion demands without judgement or censure. Membership where the group can achieve far beyond that of any one individual and can reach out and be significant in a much wider network of like minded groups. That is beginning to sound like a community structure where we can have a voice, a voice that counts, a voice that is tempered by consensus, a voice able to give as well as receive, a voice that can rebuked if too extreme. No room here for smug pleasure seeking self-satisfaction and gratification. Time to stand up and be counted.