It’s a Hard Knock Life For Us
Hard Knock Life For Us
Hard Knock Life For Us in real estate: Annie is among my very favorite musicals. I first saw it on Broadway in the early 80s when Tim and I were living in NYC.
Tim was attending grad school at Columbia University and I was working for Westinghouse as a sales engineer in the Industrial division. Annie was “new” and the musical was magical. We saw it more than once as friends visiting NYC also wanted to see Annie.
Based on the comic strip Little Orphan Annie, the musical followed the life of a young girl whose prospects are magically transformed from a down on her luck orphan to the adopted daughter of the richest man in the United States.
We all need a little bit of Annie in our lives right now.
At the orphanage Annie and the cast launch in to song with “It’s a hard knock life for us”. Many of my clients can legitimately sing that song right now. It is a hard knock life out in the real world. Many clients have lost jobs or seen their income “cut back” from past levels. Others have experienced declining health or illness. Others have seen families blow apart at the seams as the pressures of the economy squash their hopes and dreams. These families are hungry for one thing: Hope.
Loss of dignity is a serious challenge to maintaining a healthy perspective on life. Hope is the only thing many of these families have left to cling to as they weather storm after storm in their lives.
When you see a house for sale – there are many stories about how a family came to the point in life where they give up the one place in the world where they felt some security. Home is supposed to be a place where the pressures of the world are held at bay the minute we shut the front door. Home is a protected place, a place of security, a place of respite from daily pressures.
Families who lose their homes find out a truth about real estate. Home is where your family is gathered together. The house up for sale is just real estate.
Annie’s response to overwhelming despair was to look toward the future with hope. She did not dwell on the hardship of present circumstances. “Tomorrow” has long been among my very favorite songs and I picture Annie belting out the line that tomorrow is only a day away.Families who have lost their homes in the present economic downturn have learned a truism in the School of Hard Knocks.
There is hope for tomorrow and home is wherever a family gathers. Home and hope can both be found in the heart. No bank can take away your home. They can only take your house.