Good evening y’all, it is me, Billy Bob, we have been having some serious talks lately, but can I ask a real hard, painful question, would you allow me that? Holidays, you all celebrate, gather, enjoy, and cherish in many different ways and on many different days, but you get to enjoy them. We do not. Holidays are the most painful days except for birthdays that we go through out here. Barb and Frankie and even Pete hate the holidays and do their very best to find a place to hide as deep as possible so as to not be found so the pain can be avoided.
Let me let you in on a little-known secret, we do not like that we become charity cases and a checkmark on the to-do list at the end of the year. Stop before you get all puffed up and mad as you are already, when do you stop and offer a word, an encouraging word, hope, or food, hardly ever, but at the end of the year, we eat like fat little piggies. Imagine going an entire year without a kind word, or a kind gesture, and then in a span of 6 weeks, people from all over walk up to you and just dump all of those words and gestures on you and leave. Here is a truth no one will speak out loud, but here it goes, is it not so much the food and clothes we need or even want, it is human companionship, a person to talk to, a friend to sit with us, to eat with us, someone to break the loneliness that drives death, that is what we would love to receive. Truthfully how would you feel?
Now I am not ungrateful for the words, food, kindness or clothing, and the other stuff, heck some are even brave enough to give us some money to spend, darn that is real nice. But it is hard out here and only getting harder and we would like solutions that work and answers that are real and truth and is not tainted with fake promises so we could return to a normal again.
Most of you do not know what many of us have suffered that landed us out here, Pete I am surprised he is still here after that accident, Barb, her husband, a piece of work, Frankie, well the alcohol but the beating during the war did him in and the list goes on. Our Christmas wish is for a roof, a simple, small, easy, tiny roof over our heads, and the help we need to keep it. We are not normal as you folks define normal and we can’t be after what we have been through and that is where the disconnect comes, you want us normal and back to what society defines as that, we cannot be, and we need help despite that. Barb will nearly slap you down if you use the word normal around her and then show you the scar across her head. Why do you want normal before you will offer help?
Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, pie, cake, cornbread, roast beef, tea, coffee, punch, rolls, butter, gravy, I could keep going we get those foods maybe twice a year and they are good, but they also make us so very homesick it is almost not worth the pleasure of eating the meal. Imagine sitting down to eat the food that reminds you of the greatest time of your life, but you can never return to that time, it is gone forever, would you truly enjoy that food?
Think with me on this, Johnny Boy, 52 weeks in a year and you folks spend 46 weeks yelling at us, throwing stuff at us, calling the police, reporting us, and simply making life harder for us. Then for 6 weeks you flip the switch and are super nice. Sounds a tad bit schizophrenic right Johnny Boy, they may not understand how that impacts us, yelled at, and then offered nice things, and then yelled at again. Think about it for yourself, your boss, or employer is mad at you 24/7 for 46 weeks and barely speaks to you, but will give you your check, but that is it. Then for 6 short weeks is all smiles, nice, kind, and has gifts galore. Makes no sense and it explains why that 6-week period is so tough, it is because of the 46 weeks of pure, cold-hearted meanness.
Will You Allow Me to ContinHey Barb, is Frankie with you? At this time of the year, no way, you know he does his very best to go underground, it is his way of staying alive literally. Yeah, I was just hoping, maybe, this year we could get him to come out of hiding for a little bit and try to attempt a little of the holiday blessings, tough though they may be. No, his fight is so that he does not become a holiday statistic, one who did not make it through to the end of the year, and they find him somewhere no longer with us if you understand me. Sadly, I do, all too well, there are too many lost at this time of the year. And in the midst of the outpouring of kindness we are not even given mention in the news when we pass due to ‘accidents,’ or ‘overdoses’ that may not be that, they may just be us saying, ‘enough, we are done, goodbye.’ Tough subject around Christmas, but truth is always truth.
That right there would be the greatest gift of all, next to Jesus, truth, no greater gift that man could give to us houseless folk, truth. Truth, do you want to end homelessness, do you want to help us, truth do you care about our daily suffering, truth do you want to understand our stories, truth can you walk a mile in our shoes, truth where is your heart when it comes to intervention, that would be a great gift. However, most of you cannot handle the truth and you know what, that is okay, but ‘fess up and quit playing games.
The second greatest gift we would love to receive would be hope. Yes, hope for a better tomorrow, hope that we will not die in a planter bed somewhere totally forgotten, hope that we can sleep in a clean bed one day, hope that we can see our family again, hope that we can start over again, hope that maybe soon we can have food and water on a more regular basis. Our hopes are not that grand, but they are real, just like yours, but ours will often not be realized before we die, truth. What are you hoping for? Barb, do you remember the days when hoping for something was not that hard to do? Of course, Billy, we all do, but the pain of that remembering makes us shove it down real deep so the hurt stops hurting. Johnny Boy, how much do you like truth when you are going about your life? Billy, you are being silly right now, anybody that does not like truth is a sideways silly head that needs help and needs to be kept away from good folk until their head is back on straight.
Billy, you know most folk mean well they have just lost their way of doing good and right because God’s been kicked out of most places and His ways and means ain’t being taught around here much anymore. I know Barb, it is just hard, why can we see and they can’t, what is it, or have I just had too much coffee again and the holidays have me sideways again. God and America, the two were never supposed to be parted, and when we got busy being busy without Him is when America started down the wrong path and when the common folk started having all kinds of trouble and when homelessness really took hold. Christmas and holidays doing good ais not going to fix that. Hey, its Billy Bob, don’t think that we are a bunch of ingates, we are just sad to not be able to celebrate and enjoy and be at peace, the holidays are about peace and we have none. Blessings y’all
