survival

His survival in the open ocean was a miracle; he had fully expected to die.

persecution survival plan

[…] a team that have turned snatching relegation from the jaws of top-flight survival into an art form […]

Thus, if some old rhyme or saying has in one place a solemn import in philosophy or religion, while elsewhere it lies at the level of the nursery, there is some ground for treating the serious version as the more original, and the playful one as its mere lingering survival.