TWO IN DISTRESS... MAL DE MUCHOS...

 No matter how often I hear it, I won´t ever get used to it. Whenever I complain about a physical ailment, say a headache, the person I am talking to invariably will remark “I suffer from migraine headaches all the time. And so does my father-in-law, the poor man.” I usually retort with the old saying two in distress makes sorrow less, because, it seems, that a problem shared is a problem halved, but I do not like this idea because the fact that the person in question, or her father-in-law, also has migraines does not help me a bit. I couldn´t care less, as a matter of fact. The Spanish idiom shares my views in the sense that the idiom only helps fools, and only fools: mal de muchos, consuelo de tontos, although there is the version mal de muchos, consuelo de todos. If you mention to someone that you think you have the flu, you will hear something like: “There´s a lot of flu going around these days.” Or better, “My brother and his wife are in bed with it.” That is supposed to be a consolation because a problem shared is a problem halved or two in distress makes sorrow less, but it is no consolation at all. Mal de muchos, consuelo de tontos because only a fool would find comfort in knowing others are also ill.