Hope to Survive? Or... Survive To Hope?

View from my window out to the ocean

Philosophies emerge at such times. 

Survival: it's not just a state of existence or a state of mind, but a state of grace - a reason for being that is given by the Creator and a reason for helping others achieve that same state. For what were we put on earth for but to survive? 

And survive well - to the best of our abilities, to help those who have less means of survival to survive well, so that they in turn can help others. 

That's it. 

Simplistic, but that's my take. Sounds rather religion-less too, but it's not: even if your religion purports to "save" your soul, it must first save the entire being, body AND soul, for to save one and not the other is certainly not what a created being is destined for. Saving one and not the other is wasteful and renders the one unsaved meaningless. 

So where does that leave Hope? In the continuum of body and soul saving, Hope for ourselves should be placed before survival. Then Hope for others' survival can follow. Hope is a tool, not an end. 

Again, simplistic. Some would say too simplistic because this interplay of hope and survival, both body and soul does not involve religious ritual or formal prayer. It does not involve churches and saints. Indeed, it does not even involve Scripture or hymns of praise. 

Pity.