In my life, writing has always been a first step toward getting something done.  And this piece, I hope, will be exactly that.  I’ve been stewing over a specific project for a week or two.  But I’ve been reluctant to take the first step.

The “project,” I will explain, is writing a blog post.  It would be one of the posts featured, with graphics,  in the center portion of of this site.  I have a half-baked idea for an article.  Here goes:

I want to write about the squalor that is encountered by investors who buy real estate properties. Often they’re buying a place that’s been inhabited by folks who are destitute, down and out, and not “living their best life.”

I have seen a few of these situations myself.  When I was more actively buying a decade ago.  I walked through a few houses filled with trash, filth, feces, and clutter and congestion beyond your wildest dreams.

Why do I want to write about that?

I am not entirely sure.  There is a fascination in how people live, behind closed doors.  My interest is not prurient, I hope.  In part, it is do illustrate the sheer breadth of the human condition.  And to help most of us understand how fortunate we are to live normally, without the mental illness that drives people to the extreme conditions endured by maybe 5 percent of the human race.