The Dangers of Obsession
All of us have been guilty of being too obsessive. Most of us may not have a serious addiction — drugs, alcohol, shopping, to name a few — and we might pride ourselves on that. We think we’re better, stronger than those people. But we have all obsessed over some things, often life choices. We idealize our goals, investing all our hopes and dreams in one particular thing. We say, “if I can get this job, marry this person, get down to this weight, then all my other issues won’t matter anymore and I’ll be happy.” This is something our culture refers to as “your white whale,” a reference to the great American novel, Moby Dick. Urban Dictionary defines white whale as “something you obsess over to the point that it nearly or completely destroys you.” We all know that obsessions are bad, although watching Captain Ahab chase Moby Dick to the point of death in order to get revenge makes that brutally clear, but does anyone ever ask the question of why Ahab is so obsessed in the first place?
Captain Ahab’s sole obsession is killing Moby Dick, and the reason he desires to do this is vengeance… or so he says. At first he tells his crew to kill the white whale, offering a gold coin to whoever succeeds, not saying why, but when questioned, he reveals that the whale took his leg. However, from the way he talks about it, it is clear that he blames the whale for much more than a lost leg. He says the whale “razed [him]; made a poor pegging lubber of [him] forever and a day.” A loss of a leg is a terrible thing, but you can still live a successful and happy life without it; clearly, though, Ahab feels like his life is ruined and it is all to be blamed on the whale. He sees the whale as the embodiment of everything that is wrong with his life, all his problems projected onto the blank slate that is the white whale. “…all the subtle demonisms of life and thought; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified, and made practically assailable in Moby Dick. He piled upon the whale’s white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down.” If he can just get to the whale and strike it down, perhaps then, all his problems will be solved.
How to Fight Obsession
Often in literature, Ahab is viewed as a manic, almost inhuman character, so far gone to his revenge that he is not even recognizable anymore. However, I would argue that we can all have Ahab in us from time to time. Not only can we get obsessive about things, but we tend to place all our hopes and dreams onto things that can’t make all our problems go away. We could fall in love with someone and they can make us feel happy and good about ourselves, but at the end of the day, they won’t fix your life for you. You may still have a job you hate, struggle with illness, family problems, self esteem issues, etc. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive for good goals. They can bring us some happiness. But what we really need to try to find happiness and peace in the midst of our problems, instead of looking for an easy way out.
The first step is to accept that there is no fix all. You must slowly deal with your problems one at a time, while realizing that they might not all get resolved. Next, you must find something that gives you that happiness and peace daily, regardless of circumstances. For many people, religion is what fills this gap. For a Christian, our whole purpose is to know and enjoy God, and that can bring joy among so much uncertainty and hardship. If you’re not religious, you can focus on something else in your life that is stable and makes you happy no matter what. This can be family, although there can be a lot of change whenever people are involved, or it could be a passion, like exercise, books, movies, etc. I know nothing makes me feel better than a good book when times are tough. None of this will fix the rest of your problems, but it will make them survivable. It will keep you from grabbing a harpoon and setting out to sea to kill a white whale. This doesn’t mean you won’t still be tempted towards obsession now and then — falling in love in particular can make this feeling come down on you full force. But the more steady your ship is, the easier it will be to sail through turbulent waters.