Miserable Company

Whoever coined the phrase "misery loves company" was clearly having a Scheissdreck day and did something nasty to co-workers like hiding all the coffee or letting cockroaches loose in the building, just to clap hands and laugh with evil glee as others squirmed.
I am having a Scheissdreck day. But being of saintly nature I am taking the high road and offering servitude rather than wallow in self pity of my own making.

In other words, I'm spouting advice to people in worse shape than myself. It makes me feel better and I get to say: Aren't I wonderful for doing that? And: Isn't my life quite grand, after all?

Except I don't use the word "grand" as a rule.

One of the things I do on a monthly basis is ring up people who have recently emigrated to Holy Land Central (HLC) to offer information, advice or help with the process of acclimating to good 'ol HLC. It can be QUITE the rollercoaster ride, getting used to life here. I know. Remember? I'm having a Scheissdreck day.

Some days, picking up the phone to wade through the hundred or so people on my list feels burdensome. Do I really want to chit-chat AGAIN about the Absorption Ministry staff ostensibly hired to aid ALL immigrants and not just their brethren from back yonder in Russia?

Other days - like on Scheissdreck days - speaking with people who haven't worked in 9 months, who have lost all their worldly possessions, which just arrived in a shipment to an apartment fire, who are being wheedled out of savings by cheating skeevers assuming they're "rich Americans" with bulging pockets and who, accustomed to corporate, powerhouse positions now sit jobless and listless questioning the move to HLC helps put all of that Scheiss and dreck right back in its place.

We all came here for different reasons and we all land in very different ways. It genuinely helps my landing when I aid others with theirs. Schoingemacht. Mother Theresa.