What Is Your Secret Obsession?

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Some of you know I take a photo of the sunrise every morning and write a short poem or piece of writing to go with it.

I've been doing every day now for just short of two years.

Whether I'm here in NYC or traveling to the Outer Banks or at my friend's house by the pond in Connecticut, I get up, go out, take the shot and write down what comes to me.

I haven't missed a day in those two years.

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/251326_1883760410952_1149611605_31757872_1706507_n.jpg

This is what came to me this morning:

Caring for Your Pet Obsession
An obsession cannot be on a leash, unless it's like a pet bear, where it let's you think you're leading it around while all the while it's chasing you.
==
So, that got me to thinking: Is this becoming an obsession? And, if so, isn't it, in this case, as opposed to say the camera tricks Anthony Weiner was up to, a good thing?

And I wanted to know what's your secret obsession?

Okay, okay, get back here. Let me re-phrase: Uh, what was the secret obsession of that person you once knew or heard about a long time ago? (wink)
What is the odd, but harmless, fixation that seems to possess some people completely and let others be unfazed. (nudge)

I would like to know its story. When it arose, how it played out, how long you, I mean, what'shishertheirname continued with it and how it ended.

And I'd like to talk about obsessions, how they seem to both heat us up and cool us down.

(You've known people who cannot get through a week unless they see their "program". They are wound pretty tight until the program starts, then they seem to relax because ,,, well, I don't know why, that's part of what I'd like to discuss. ----- I'm thinking right now about Raymond Babbit's need to see Judge Wapner every afternoon. )

One final question: Is it an essential part of succeeding in life to have an obsession with succeeding?

Joe(I can't stop thinking about this. Mr. Green

)Nation

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@Joe Nation,

As a photographer and a writer, I envy you for this 'obsession'. What a healthy productive activity. So if you get to doing it, your 'best of' will be awesome!

My secret obsession is not so secret to the people with whom I participate. I guess you could call this an obsession. I counsel four of my friends using Skype (cam and audio) about their current life problems. I've been doing this for about 1 and/or 2 yrs, in some cases. The good thing is that it's mutually rewarding. I think doing this counseling is succeeding as they're getting better at overcoming their problems. In some cases, at my insistance, they're now getting professional help, which is helping them to become more functional in their lives.

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Well, the first one is no secret - I continue to be interested in a2k, undoubtedly to my 'get a life' detriment. On the other hand, it's been something of a life saver.

I'm a reading fiend, and would catapult into very strong distress if I couldn't read anymore, and that happens for people, almost did for me once and has for some other a2kers. Milton, for example. But others, closer to me.

I've needed to read since I was a kid, an only child in a quiet family, sans playmates until I was about nine. Thus I will read ads on the bus or cereal boxes, or wretchedly written novels (oh, wait, no I don't, but there is a push pull in not reading them when that is all I have around to read).

I'm extremely visually oriented and somewhat mentally photographic of what I see - and that was awakened more when I started to learn about urban space (yadda yadda) and man in nature, and landscape painting. So, in short, I'm a pain in the ass to walk down the street with, even in a presumably boring place.

As a side effect of both of those, I've read a lot of travel diaries and wallowed in photography - which is not often called travel photography, usually the opposite, as with Sebasatiano Salgado's gold mine photos.

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@Joe Nation,

I think an obsession, such as yours, requires a bit of devotion.
It is like the bear in your thought, it demands your devotion.

My obsession is no secret, I am a fisherman.
However, a number of years ago, when I actually became a fisherman, there was a point when I had to devote myself.
The obsession was already there, but my devotion earned me the reward of an identity, I became a fisherman.

I would hazard a guess that your sunrise obsession requires a great deal of devotion from you.
I am curious as to whether you find an identity within that devotion.

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Carbs with butter and salt . . . pasta, potatoes . . . it doesn't matter which one . . .

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@Setanta,

So is salt the key item?
(I am not presently nattering)

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@ossobuco,

No . . . it's a holistic obsession--it must contain carbs and butter and salt. Rice works, too . . .

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Checking my checking accounts. I have three myself, and I am constantly going on line to watch the transactions, the ins and outs, when checks are cashed, etc. I go on them every day. I don't even enjoy it. It's just something I do.

I am also treasurer for a group and don't watch that checking account obsessively.

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I was going to say nothing, and that I thought that was a loss....but then I read Osso's post and realized that it is reading. I hadn't thought of that as an obsession, just as an essential condition of life, like air.

And, having just gotten rid of yet another massive load of books yesterday, I realized that I sacrifice quite a lot to this deity.

E books are a blessed relief to such as I...allowing expression of the urge without being buried in the result.

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@dlowan,

dlowan wrote:

allowing expression of the urge without being buried in the result.

the row of stacked books up the side of the staircase saved my can recently ... I started to slip and fall ... there were so many books I got wedged in against them ... only fell two steps instead of the entire flight

Books save lives!

(and prevent bruised behinds)

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@ehBeth,

But books nearly killed me the other day!

I was culling books causing me to be injured by the CD player and speakers.

Very glad to hear you were saved by your books though.

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@Setanta,

This is why I love fresh corn-on-the-cob (a good excuse for butter and salt.)

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@dlowan,

But, but..

I remember some writer going on about loss of university catalogs. I'll recognize his name if someone tells me, perhaps Nicholson. But I also remember the catalogs at ucla. Open drawer, slam it back. Lots of teeny notations on cards, at least when I looked at them. Have also read lately that they saved the vatican catalogs (and do you expect me to believe that?).

In another life, I could become a library catalog freak.

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@dlowan,

I'm kind of obsessed with animals, too.

I can imagine myself in a cottage in the hills with chooks and ducks and a few ponies and cats and a dog or two and sundry rescued native animals to nurse back to health.

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I jog.
There was a time I would have said "I run". That time has passed.
I jog in rain and snow. I jog at work, at home, or on vacation.
I have been stopped by injuries to my feet, ankles, knees and hips.
But as soon as I could, I started jogging again.
I'm not as fast as I once was. I don't jog as far as I once did.
But I still jog.

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@Joe Nation,

I have an obsession with shoes and watches, When I go shopping and see a pair of shoes I don't have and like, I buy them. I have so many shoes I could never wear them all three jewelry boxes full of watches, some nice ones, others cheap.

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@jcboy,

Sorry, but like, whatever. Those attract you. They are not the air you must breathe.

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@ossobuco,

Finding treasure. I haunt junk stores, antique malls, Goodwill. I used to go to estate sales every Saturday morning. Furnished my entire ten-room house with finds from estate sales and junk stores. The real obsession is to find the real treasure in a mass of junk.. I also collect: deco compacts, soapstone carvings, wedding cake toppers, deco dancing ladies and antique buddhas.. These two obsessions kind of go hand in hand, obviously. Oh, and I guess this obsession is not really a secret, is it?

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@ossobuco,

This is a thread where we comment negatively on each other's obsessions?

Surely not.

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@mags314772,

not so much now

Very Happy

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