Obsession

There are a number of blogs that I read every day dealing with science, politics and education. The first blog I read everyday, however, is UniWatch, which is run by Paul Lucas. Mr. Lucas describes the site as "the obsessive study of athletic aesthetics", which is a pretty accurate description. Basically, the site maintains a record of the details of sports uniforms and attire. Of course, Mr. Lucas voices his opinions on many current choices in sports attire (he maintains a strong hatred of the color purple and a love of baseball stirrups). I will fully admit to being a sports fan, primarily hockey and football, but I can't say that I have ever made much notice of the details of uniforms until I began reading Mr. Lucas's blog. I am nowhere near as observant while watching games as Mr. Lucas and many of his readers, but I do find myself noticing many more details than I ever did before (while watching the Ohio State - Penn State game last weekend, the first thing I thought of when I saw that the Penn State running back has ripped his pants was about the reaction of all the UniWatch readers). That all being said, I would not say that I have an obsession with sports attire the way that Mr. Lucas says he does.

What is obsession? How is it different than passion? Where do we draw the line between the two? I would say that one of the two has a positive connotation and one has a negative connotation, though Mr. Lucas uses the word "obsession" in a way that does not seem to imply anything negative. I think that most people would be comfortable about admitting they have passions (they may not want to admit what those passions are, but that is another issue entirely). Would people be so quick to admit that they have obsessions? Is any of the difference between my views of passions and obsessions related to the popularity of obsessive-compulsive disorders? Is being obsessed a disease? How much does a person have to care about something before it is an obsession? Is the standard for obsession the same as that for being unhealthy?

I don't know if any of the questions I just posed are actually meaningful, or if the difference between obsession and passion is simply a matter of semantics. Either way, it is something that I think about a lot while reading Mr. Lucas's daily posts.