In June 2001, my husband, Steve, and I were interested in buying the Homer Talley House, on South Sixth Street, which had previously been the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. The fraternity members had vacated the house, but left considerable detritus in their wake. Farrington’s Grove had organized about 30 neighbors to clean up the house and haul out the remnants of 35 years of fraternity use. Each of us was going about our assigned tasks, tearing out partitions in the attic, hauling elderly couches, chairs and television sets out of …

There are two things to know.  The first is that I sell insurance.  The second is that people tell me things.  They open up as if I’m their psychiatrist.  I haven’t figured out why; maybe no one listens to them at home.  Perhaps they sense I have a caring personality.  Whatever the reason, they admit their sins and shortcomings.  They’re in confessional.  They tell me: Yes, I smoke, and I tried to quit with that new medication they have, but it didn’t work; it just made me a wreck.  I …