hoarders

I listened to a surprisingly touching radio interview with one of the guys who works for the show Hoarders, Matt Paxton. He heads a special clean-up crew who go into those horror show homes and rake through nests of rats to find things like dead cats and pristine newspapers lamenting JFK's death.  I was struck by his rather kindhearted desire to help people by mucking out their homes.

What was especially fascinating was his revelation that doing this work suited him nicely, since he's a recovering addict and perhaps isn't easy to shock and unlikely  to judge anyone. Even more interesting: he prefers to work with recovering addicts and people fresh from jail, out on parole. He said some of his crew are convicted murderers.

It makes sense, what they have in common: people on the fringes, people who've hit near-bottom, etc., have strong stomachs and are hard to disturb (more practically, hard to employ in other professions perhaps). Also, as these guys stand in these terrible houses and fill up trash bags with moldy dishes and roach-eaten pillowcases, they seem close to a sense of redemption. In that one specific space of their rebuilt lives, they are practically saintly.