Love and hope are needed where food alone can never satiate the hunger. Many a times you sit down to eat at places where you would rather not be. People who deride you, your enemies, those whom you owe your life to and where you are made to look like a vermin are the places where you wouldn't want to have even a morsel of food. Yet you are forced to accept their hospitality and swallow your pride. Or eat because you gotta live!
Now there are households where the woman of the house are treated like crap. I remember a case of a very highly educated woman who works for one of the largest legal firms being treated worse than a dog. She was thrown her food in a plate and forced to sleep in a dungeon type room only because she had her periods! Unfortunately, her daughter had just then matured and had absolutely no idea how to handle herself was also treated in the same way. The husband btw was a highly educated IT professional working for a Fortune 500 company. He was supporting his mother in such issues. His mother was from medieval times. Wth?
Now you tell me, what is a person supposed to do in such circumstances? I advised her to get out of it but her supposedly "good consul" prevailed and she never took my advice. She remains still attached to that screwed up guy and gets treated like crap! So much for education and upbringing!
I came across another case long ago where the lady stands outside this idiots house hoping that some day he will acknowledge her. She was offered food and shelter sometimes by strangers. She is a great scientist and has written many papers. Unfortunately, she fell in love with a man who took all her life research and then dumped her on the streets. She now seeks justice by staking out in the garden in front of his house. But to what avail?
Sometimes I wonder why do people go to such extent? I can tell you of a man who has been extra sweet to his wife but when time was right she stabbed him in the back by telling him that his most beloved kid might not be his! That she married him out of spite!
Now why do people torture themselves? Is it that they are glutton for punishment?
I started the article by writing about food so let me end by telling you the methods that unscrupulous people employ. Maids in some rich nations are treated inhumanly. The people trap them by promising good salaries and bring them from far away places. Once they have arrived, they are given half the promised salaries, never offered holidays, given a horrible place to sleep, made to eat stuff which is stale, not asked to cook more than needed so they invariably go hungry, never allowed to go down on their own and much more. This happens in richer nations.
Now you give me a reason why do people allow themselves to get trapped this way? I guess it's helplessness which is the greatest lacuna. Can we eliminate that by offering love or hope? On a full stomach, of course!