Obsession vs. Passion
A few days ago my roommate remarked about the intensity with which I throw myself into a new topic. Actually, she said that when I become "obsessed" with something, I waste no time in gathering all of the info that I can about the topic. Her comment got me thinking: Do I have an obsessive personality? Or am I, as I have always thought, just passionate about certain things? It is certainly true that once I discover something great--a new cause, a new talent, a new "idea"--I do what I can to gather information about the issue. I want to know everything I can about that topic because if it's cool enough to capture my interest, it's cool enough for me to understand it in its entirety. I partially blame the internet for this! I am at a computer all day and the internet makes learning about new things as easy as pressing a couple buttons and researching a few key phrases. Suddenly, anything that you want to know (or maybe don't) is right there in front of you. For instance, in class last week a professor was showing old clips of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show and a segment with Pearl Bailey came on screen. I have heard of Pearl Bailey before but had no idea that she played Dolly Levi in an all-Black cast of the musical Hello Dolly back in the 1960s. So my obsession, or passion, kicked in and I spent an hour online finding out all about her career, her history, and in particular, her work in one of the great musicals of our time.
Was that intense research then an obsessive move or a passionate one? Wanting to better understand myself, I went straight to the dictionary (it's bookmarked on my computer) and looked for decisive descriptions of both terms. Their dictionary definitions are listed below:
obsession: a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling
passion: a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept; see enthusiasm (lively or eager interest in or admiration for a proposal, cause, or activity)
These dictionary terms make it all seem pretty clear. My interest in certain people or things is neither "disturbing" nor "unreasonable," it is, however, usually "strong" and even a "desire" to know more or understand better. I have always been hesitant to describe myself as obsessive, although I do use the term occasionally, I never really mean it. Case in point, my "obsession" with all things Barbra Streisand is no way "disturbing", but I am passionately devoted and enthusiastic about her work and the things for which she stands. With that distinction made, I guess now my question is, what's wrong with being passionate about something? If more people in this world embraced the things which they are passionate about (considering those things were not disturbing or unreasonable, read: obsessive) couldn't we all benefit? If I could pass on my passion for movies that educate and enlighten to someone else who, in turn, gathered their own passion within it and then passed their passion on to the next person...perhaps a chain of passionate people could actually change things, if only even themselves.
In my life, I want to be passionate about all things that matter to me. I want passion to overflow to the people that I love, to the literature that I read, to the movies that I watch, to the theater I see and the music to which I listen. I want to lay in bed each night exhausted because I lived my life so full of passion that at my rest the passion still flows through my body. I've decided that my passions in life are nothing to be ashamed of, but to be openly embraced, one passionate step at a time.
A few days ago my roommate remarked about the intensity with which I throw myself into a new topic. Actually, she said that when I become "obsessed" with something, I waste no time in gathering all of the info that I can about the topic. Her comment got me thinking: Do I have an obsessive personality? Or am I, as I have always thought, just passionate about certain things? It is certainly true that once I discover something great--a new cause, a new talent, a new "idea"--I do what I can to gather information about the issue. I want to know everything I can about that topic because if it's cool enough to capture my interest, it's cool enough for me to understand it in its entirety. I partially blame the internet for this! I am at a computer all day and the internet makes learning about new things as easy as pressing a couple buttons and researching a few key phrases. Suddenly, anything that you want to know (or maybe don't) is right there in front of you. For instance, in class last week a professor was showing old clips of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show and a segment with Pearl Bailey came on screen. I have heard of Pearl Bailey before but had no idea that she played Dolly Levi in an all-Black cast of the musical Hello Dolly back in the 1960s. So my obsession, or passion, kicked in and I spent an hour online finding out all about her career, her history, and in particular, her work in one of the great musicals of our time.
Was that intense research then an obsessive move or a passionate one? Wanting to better understand myself, I went straight to the dictionary (it's bookmarked on my computer) and looked for decisive descriptions of both terms. Their dictionary definitions are listed below:
obsession: a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling
passion: a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept; see enthusiasm (lively or eager interest in or admiration for a proposal, cause, or activity)
These dictionary terms make it all seem pretty clear. My interest in certain people or things is neither "disturbing" nor "unreasonable," it is, however, usually "strong" and even a "desire" to know more or understand better. I have always been hesitant to describe myself as obsessive, although I do use the term occasionally, I never really mean it. Case in point, my "obsession" with all things Barbra Streisand is no way "disturbing", but I am passionately devoted and enthusiastic about her work and the things for which she stands. With that distinction made, I guess now my question is, what's wrong with being passionate about something? If more people in this world embraced the things which they are passionate about (considering those things were not disturbing or unreasonable, read: obsessive) couldn't we all benefit? If I could pass on my passion for movies that educate and enlighten to someone else who, in turn, gathered their own passion within it and then passed their passion on to the next person...perhaps a chain of passionate people could actually change things, if only even themselves.
In my life, I want to be passionate about all things that matter to me. I want passion to overflow to the people that I love, to the literature that I read, to the movies that I watch, to the theater I see and the music to which I listen. I want to lay in bed each night exhausted because I lived my life so full of passion that at my rest the passion still flows through my body. I've decided that my passions in life are nothing to be ashamed of, but to be openly embraced, one passionate step at a time.
posted by Ebony @ 9:38 PM
1 Comments:
At 12:11 PM,
Anonymous said…
Correction: Your, let's say, fascination with all things Barbra is indeed quite disturbing so I think it qualifies as an obsession. :) But I dig your passion nonetheless...life would be boring without it.
-Lindsey
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