Thursday, January 15, 2026
In 1978, Gloria Gaynor wrote words that live in infamy. “Long as I know how to love, I know I’ll stay alive. I’ve got my life to live, and all my love to give, and I will survive.”
No wonder this song is still not only relevant, but popular. Most of us think of survival in a very different context, however. Our hyper focus on material, our fixation on “hard work,” and the feeling of essentiality and insecurity have cultivated humans that feel the only reason we are here is to survive, as in “survival mode.”
One could also say knowing how to play, how to love, and knowing how to enjoy are keys to survival. Slaving, routine drudgery, and no time for spontaneity kills the zing of aliveness, making “survival mode” sting even more.
You aren’t truly living until you don’t know where your next paycheck is coming from, in a literal sense. How a situation will work out, in a clear schematic for tomorrow. How a big dream will come to pass. Or how your next meal will appear in your face.
Isn’t that cutting it close – not knowing where your next paycheck is going to materialize? There is no close call. There’s no “just under the wire.” There’s no fear in not knowing. Because truly no-one knows. Am I going to survive? Who knows?
I know I have all my love to give. I know I’ll stay alive. I thrive in this sense of not knowing. I will find great aliveness in letting go of trying to outsmart myself. Not knowing might be the only way to truly survive. It releases the sting of “survival mode” and introduces you to aliveness, liberation from the crap of running the world. If you’re in misery, you’re in “survival mode.”
Does life really need you to work this hard?