Obsessions

ob-ses-sion (noun): 1: a persistent disturbing preoccupation with an often unreasonable idea or feeling; broadly : compelling motivation 2 : something that causes an obsession* 


 Our first day of the CNF writing class our professor had us go around and introduce ourselves, and 'confess' two of our obsessions.  I thought this was brilliant for a creative writing class, but it could also be a great way to break the ice in any class! As we went around sharing our current obsessions, we learned a lot about each other's interests, backgrounds, and personalities.

One girl shared that she was obsessed with buying movies and owns more than 1,000 of them; another girl said she's been obsessed with Titanic since it came out when she was in middle-school (I could definitely relate); several of us admitted that we were currently obsessed with The Hunger Games, and we jokingly remarked that we need to have a small group discussion one day - it's yet to happen but I don't doubt that it might one day.


Sharing our obsessions got me thinking about my own strange obsessions I've had over the years.  I think it would be an interesting thing to explore in writing some time.  I've tried to think of some of the things I've gotten hung-up on for a period of time growing up, and I found that most of these obsessions came about because of a movie:

Source: sharetv.org via Jade on Pinterest

Storm Chasers - - I loved Twister and went around 'chasing' them in the backyard with my own 'Dorothy' I'd made from a plastic play grocery store cart, balls of paper, and the little whirligigs that blow in the wind.  One year for Christmas Santa Claus brought me Tornados, Hurricanes, and Thunderstorms videos from The Weather Channel.  I've watched almost all the movies made about tornados (that seemed to be my favorite storm to chase).


The Home Alone movies - - I was Kevin. I wanted a brown backpack like him to carry the TalkBoy I got for a birthday (or Christmas, can't remember). I had Mom record things he said into my TalkBoy ("...and I want one of those little refrigerators you have to open with a key.  Credit card, you got it!").  This is perhaps the weirdest obsession in my mind, and I can't really figure out why I was so interested.

Titanic - - I already talked about this in a recent post; I loved the 1997 film and started exploring the real Titanic, checking out books at the library, watching the old films of the tragedy, typing up facts about the people and the things onboard on our little computer and printing them out.

I'm sure there were many more in between if I really sit and think about it, but when I was older I was obsessed with more literature-related stuff:

Transcendentalists and the American Bloomsbury - - Writers who lived in Concord, Massachusetts - Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau. I thought it was so interesting that they all lived close to one another and had relationships, such brilliance living in one area.  When I was a sophomore in college my parents took our vacation in Concord and my mom and I got to tour the Alcott house; we visited Walden Pond where Thoreau lived for a while and wrote Walden; we saw Hawthorne's and Emerson's houses.  I am so thankful that my family took the time to do this, because goodness knows they weren't that interested in it except that it was part of American history and it's quite beautiful up there.

Holocaust Literature - - Another tragedy to add to Titanic and Tornadoes, I've been interested in Holocaust literature since college and can probably call this an ongoing obsession. I think it first started around the time I was in a play about children in the Holocaust called I Never Saw Another Butterfly.  I never got to take a Holocaust Lit class (though they offered one...bummer), but I've researched it a lot on my own and written papers since then.  I have a growing list of related books and I'd eventually love to build a class centered around Holocaust Lit.  I find it fascinating that what these people - who were days and months from their death, threatened with being exterminated, or those who lived and survived - wanted to do was write and create art.   The children in Terezin wrote and drew on the back of Nazi paper; they could turn it over and find the list of people who were dying around them. If that isn't powerful and if those words don't tell us something, then I don't know if there is really power in anything. "A Wall of Two" is a collection of poetry written by two sisters in a concentration camp; they sewed the words into their clothes and they live on today. Anne Frank's words live on. These victims of humanity survived through the words they left. Those words are read today. They live through those words. Their words will last forever (or as long as someone finds the need to pass them on).  I just find that amazing.

The Hunger Games - - Again, a very recent and current obsession.  Anytime I hear someone talking about it I join the conversation.  I know many people think it's a bit morbid (and it is) but it's a powerful story and metaphor for our world, providing a place to begin discussion about oppression, subversive living, and class structures.

It's interesting to think about our obsessions; they tell a lot about our personalities and experiences, and they help us explore the stages we've gone through.  Our obsessions shape us and stay with us for the rest of our lives. What obsessions did you have growing up or do you have now?

*from Merriam-Webster dictionary online