Obsessions

Ralphie and his obsession

We are all obsessed with something.

The latest cell phone, the newest fashion, the quest for the perfect sneakers.

I’m obsessed with tarot cards. I read, but not well enough to read for others. I collect them mainly for their art. There are beautiful decks out there; some are worth a lot of money, some are worth nothing more than the cardstock they’re printed on. Doesn’t matter to me. There is beauty in all decks.

I’m also obsessed with blank journals. I rarely buy them new. I usually scour thrift stores for journals that people have discarded. Once in a while, I’ll find one that has a few pages of someone’s life written down. I read them and wonder what happened to them. Did they find the happiness they were looking for? Did they beat that disease they were battling? Did the boy they were mooning over finally give them the time of day? I’ve thought about these people and felt their pain. Then I tear out their pages and add my own story.

Books are another obsession. I probably have 2,000 unread books in my home. Mostly paperback mysteries with an occasional romance novel thrown in. Thank God, my Mom loves to read. She reads them and puts her initial in them, then I read them (eventually!), and they go to someone else. Or back to the thrift store where they originated.

Tarot cards, journals and books are therapeutic for me. I figure they are a lot cheaper than drugs. Or alcohol. Or cigarettes. Out of 300 journals, I’ve written in probably 20 of them. I have a long way to go, but it doesn’t stop me from buying more. Is it a sickness? Perhaps some may look at it that way, but thankfully, I don’t.

My cat, Ralphie is obsessed with a brown shoelace. He is all about strings and long pieces of paper tabbing taken from birdseed bags. The boy is all about cheap entertainment! But this shoelace is a different animal. I found it when I was cleaning my bedroom last week and threw it down on the floor for him. He went ballistic. Meowing and grabbing and chasing. I have to sit with him for a few minutes before work and before bedtime to sit on the floor and play with him and this shoelace. It goes up on the dresser after I’m done or he’ll sit and moon over it. Is that healthy?

His siblings aren’t nearly as enamored over the shoelace as Ralphie. Just as my Mom isn’t over the moon about my tarot cards and my journals, but we all have different obsessions I suppose. She’s a Red Hat lady. Purple outfits and red hats fill her closet. I don’t mind. She has her obsessions, and I have mine.

And I guess Ralphie has his too.