Never a Beggar I Be

We are taught that independence means needing nobody.

We discover that healthy people do need others.

But asking for help requires trust.

Trusting somebody else requires trusting your own judgment.

And what happens when you don’t trust yourself?

This is the Matrix.

Never a beggar I be.

Never a beggar I be.

My father taught me from a very early age: never ask for charity. Never ask for a handout.

And I think what he was really trying to teach me was: rely on yourself.

And I have.

But I’ve also learned that asking for help is not a sin.

It is not a weakness.

Because we need people.

Human. Human. Human.

Humanity requires us to be symbiotic.

At least, I think it does.

It requires us to love and to be loved. Otherwise, why would the oldest profession in the world exist? Sex workers have existed throughout human history because human beings don’t only hunger for food and shelter.

We hunger for connection.

We need people.

Absolutely.

But on our own terms.

And the people we allow into our lives have to understand something about compassion, care and humanity.

You cannot simply use and abuse people.

That may sometimes be the way the world works.

But it is not the way the world survives.

Societies can exist that way.

They cannot survive that way.

Because eventually somebody has to trust somebody.

And perhaps that is the Matrix we actually need to escape:

the belief that needing another human being makes us weak.

It doesn’t.

Perhaps the real strength is knowing that I can stand alone —

and still choose to reach out my hand.