"What are you doing for Christmas?"
"Going to Crisis."

She thought I meant a nightclub. But it is a club of sorts.

Volunteering for Crisis gives you a rare example - not found in corporate life - of people working together with a default position of kindness, because that's all we have. The centres are teeming with volunteers wresting happiness for themselves and others from the nation's distress.

The scariest person I meet here is a Green Badge (Crisis High Command).
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" she barks, existentially.