OBSESSED OR PASSIONATE??

One way to connect with people through one’s blog is to become a member of a ‘bloggers’ group which can boost one’s blog traffic and also by signing up for blog-hops/tours; and or taking up the challenges laid down by other bloggers. That’s actually two ways…isn’t it?

I am doing precisely this as I am new to this world of blogging. The blog hops and challenges give me an opportunity to think and write about a subject which otherwise I may not have come up with.

So, when faced with a challenge of writing, what do I do? I browse the net to gather information if it is a subject which I am not familiar with. Based on that, I either write my poems or the blog. From the time I commit myself to accept the challenge and till I finally put it down on my blog site, I think of nothing else. Once a thought has been implanted in my brain, I have to keep on feeding it with words. Constantly correcting, rephrasing, trying to come up with something apt or better and making sentences until I commit these to my memory….which is a short term memory. No sooner have I transferred these words in my brain to the computer, an auto clean takes place wiping out my short term memory clean. Mean while, I have trained my mind to do all my household chores of cooking, cleaning, dusting….etc, on auto-pilot! It is true. My son often complains that I am going deaf!

Definitions:

Obsess: to have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single      emotion or topic. Obsession is unhealthy , a term used to name a chronic thinking towards someone or something that dominates one’s thoughts.

Passion:  any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling.   Boundless enthusiasm or the object of such enthusiasm. Passion is based around a goal, an internal goal or a core value which gives a sense of achievement or accomplishment. 

While browsing the net for more information on this subject ,I came across quite a few interesting blogs and articles.

John Hagel III in Edge Perspectives says:  “To say passion becomes obsessions is to make a distinction of degree. It implies that obsession is more passionate form of passion – too much of a good thing.” 
More….http://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_perspectives/2010/03/passion-versus-obsession.html

Isn’t a first time mom obsessed with her baby? Only that the term we use is maternal love. Here, the obsession is healthy.

A few years back, a murder and subsequent chopping and burning of the body of the murdered victim by his killer and his fiancée shocked our country. The judge pronounced this as a “crime of passion” and the killer got away with just 7 years of imprisonment. So, passion isn’t healthy either?

This is too deep a subject to debate. For me, there is a very thin line separating both. I am passionate (or obsessed) enough with what I am doing unless I do not let it overtake my sense of being or drive me to the point of distress that I am not able to think of anything else or do anything else.I do not get distressed if I am not able to come up with anything suitable as I do take a mental break from the thoughts. I am passionate if I am focused enough to bring out the best in me. I am passionate enough if I am responsible and committed to what I enjoy doing most, it can be my writing, my running or my reading.

So, what do you guys feel about this? As writers are you all obsessed or passionate?