Lost Our Place

This is Billy Bob and the Consortium
Let’s Have a Conversation Today

We Have Simply Lost Our Place
If We Vanish, it is Easier for the Normal Folk

Hey, morning folks, it’s me, Johny Boy, I don’t like this here talking to y’all, no way, it is hard and tough, ‘cause I know that most of y’all just know we have lost our place and you are glad. You have no clue that life can fall out from under you and bam life is gone, home is gone, health is gone, and so is your place in life is pretty, neat, controlled order. Come on in, you housed folks, let’s talk for real today. But we are working on your stubborn mindset, so let’s go:

Life is always moving—marching forward, never pausing. Those cast off onto the streets have stepped out of that movement. They have surrendered their place in the rhythm of life, and for many, too much time has passed to easily step back in.

Hope moves with life, and life requires motion. When movement stops, life slows, and when someone takes up permanent residence on the streets, that slowing becomes decay. We all hear it said—quietly, carefully, afraid to speak it plainly—that something must be done.

They need to be moved away to places designed to contain, corral, and protect them from themselves, so the rest of us are no longer impacted, and so our own lives—and our hope—can remain active and intact.

Initial Reaction from the Consortium

Man, these goofy humans make it sound like we just slowed up to take a vacation or something, losing our place.

 Hard to get back, try next to impossible, why are there too many well-placed, fancy, high-end, well-polished cars on the road that don’t want to make room for us.

Then they dare to say that we surrendered our place, really, no money and housing unaffordable, we did that, really? How easy is it to surrender one’s place in life?

The only truth to read, life slapped us and we landed hard, place lost, why can’t they get it?

Round Table Discussion/Frustration

It’s Pete, I jumped, even though I can’t stand talking in front of people, especially you strangers, here it goes. I am going to make this super simple on how easy it could happen to anyone. Also, we shall believe for this example that y’all grew up without any major incidents. So, imagine for a minute that your life is a fast-moving car on the freeway, all is well, moving and going in the direction you desire. Then suddenly you get bumped and you are off the freeway, sidelined, homeless. Time marches and try as you might, that car of yours cannot find an onramp to rejoin the freeway system of life. You have lost your place! Yes, a story it is, but maybe one that you housed folks can think about and see how quickly it can happen to anyone, not just a certain group of people.

Here is a picture of the truth of what happens when we surrender our place in life and life keeps moving, we ain’t dead, but we might as well be. I have seen and experienced this many times, and I am the tough military man; you are forgotten by everyone. They walk around you and by you and near, but never with or next to you, it is as if you have become a ghost in this life. There are a few who see you and don’t allow you to surrender all humanity, but they are rare. What they cannot deal with is the truth of our lost places not being surrendered, but taken; that is where they get fussy.

Man, this is exactly what I experienced at my doctor’s office the other day; they all seemed to think I should not be there, and it could not have been more maddening for me. It was as if all of them there folks thought I should just disappear and life would be better for them, not thinking about my needs or wants, they knew I had no place left in this life as a street person. I mean who decides if the place is lost, kept, or given away, who makes those heavily-handed decisions for us? Did I, Sally, give it all up when life slapped its force out of me, and I landed on the streets? Why did I lose my place, I did not give it up. The fullness of life was removed and the shell with a heartbeat was left.

Hey friends, it is Billy Bob, I don’t normally step in, but on this one, I need to. This coffee drinking group is pretty upset right now. This was a card that should have waited until trust had been built a little more. You who are housed in warm, sheltered, comfortable, safe homes cannot imagine what it feels like to know that you place in life and your plans and hopes for that life have been surrendered. And no one cares, even though it may not have been your fault. Chew on that. Lost our place makes it sound like choice, decision, thoughtful processing, purposeful intent, but none of that is true for the majority of us. You housed folks ignore inflation, housing costs, food expenses, medical care, transportation, and all of this other mess that cannot be absorbed when you have very little money coming in. When that happens, our place in the normal flow of life is erased as if we had died.

Riposte

Hope does move with the rhythm of life,
but don’t confuse silence with surrender.
We didn’t step away from the beat—
the floor was pulled out from under us,
the music kept playing for others,
and we were told to stand still,
to wait, to disappear politely.

If hope left, it wasn’t because we quit dancing.
It was taken, fenced off, priced out,
guarded by rules written without our names.
So don’t ask where our hope went—
ask who decided
we no longer deserved a place in the song.

You didn’t protect us.
You protected yourselves.
You called cages care,
control compassion,
and containment peace—
while you took our place in life
and slept better because we were out of sight.

Did we skid out and lose our place in the movement—
or did the roadway open a sinkhole,
swallow us in plain sight,
while those still moving called it our fault
and adjusted their mirrors
so they wouldn’t have to see the absence?

Okay, Our Turn, We Ask You Some Questions:

Our Hope that you will see through the superficial topic of discussion that trap us to the streets and to the graves

That you begin to understand the danger of: Not thinking for your own self, but where you can challenge groupthink

See the great divide presented today in this discussion, if common sense is applied, one would have to question the rationale used today in the question, ‘willingly step out of our place in society,’ truth or not?

Finally, assess for yourself, is this a true, true mindset that I have allowed or is it something that I have been fed, and it is false, critically important-think

Conclusion

So, we skid out somewhere along life’s course and you quickly, quietly and without question step in and call it good, without thought or care, and we are the rejects of society? Who would have thought that being in the armed services and deployed was mentally, emotionally easier, but upon return, one cannot find their place in civilian life. How is this compassionate or caring?

You must be able to admit that you lay your heads down on soft pillows and under warm blankets and are okay with us having been made to disappear because we lost our place, how? Our pillow is concrete, cardboard, or grass. When does truth start to be discussed? Did our lives lose all their when that wicked skid happened and the front door opened and we landed on the streets?

Thanks for joining us today, this was painful and all too real and one subject that many ignore, losing our place is very real. But the system has been designed that way since handing responsibility off to the government, just ask the consortium, nothing will change until we change who controls the narrative. See you next time, I hope!

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