FEELING LIKE A FOOL
Bankruptcy isn’t an easy thing to get through. Anyone can tell you that who’s been through it. Your friends ignore you, your spouse hates you, your kids resent you. You sit down with some arrogant lawyer and fill out dozens of papers. Then you really feel like a fool and blame the whole thing on yourself, so you’re recommended for therapy sessions. You sit for an hour with a stern-looking woman, who takes all kinds of notes on her legal pad, and tell her how you feel about being bankrupt and all the negativity that goes with it. She charges you 100 bucks for the session, and you remind her that you don’t have any money. Then you go outside and realize that there’s three more inches of snow to clean off the car and you forgot to stop at the Dominick’s to pick up cat food. Not easy. I myself had to get through it, you know. At the time, I knew no one else that had suffered that way. Everyone I knew was rich as sin, or living in a comfortable manner. It was really hell. Most of them just stayed away from me, ignored my messages, until I was able to get back on my feet again and had managed to secure a temporary agency slot. My friend Carla even told me that maybe one of the companies would hire me. Meaning, of course, that I’d have a steady income again. Meaning, of course, that Carla wouldn’t have to pay for lunches at L’Acciardi Trattoria.