This past week, a Texas woman posted a video after shopping at Kohl’s. While at the store, Candace Payne decided that if she were not to get anything else there, she had to get a Chewbacca mask. She saw it, and she fell in love.
What made the video go viral is how the world has interpreted her excitement for the toy.
“It’s so great, I can’t wait to show you!” Candace exclaims as she claps her hands before pulling the mask out of the box. She goes on to show us the mask and tell us how her son might try to “confiscate” it, but explains that she will not let this happen.
And then, in a roar of laughter you can see the joy in her eyes as she puts the mask on, she shows us her favorite part about the mask: "Brrwhhhaargh...brrwhhhaargh!"
The mask makes noise!
This video was so well received that Candace’s local Kohl’s store sent representatives to her house to deliver more masks and other toys for Candace and her kids.
Now, to say that Candace has an obsession with the mask is OK. However, I just see it as excitement. We all have our own “obsessions” with the things that bring us joy in life, but I feel as though there is a fine line between excitement, obsession and addiction, and I would like to address it.
This past fall, I noticed a lot of new accounts on Twitter regarding the show My Strange Addiction or Totally Obsessed. I would scroll through the videos and laugh as a guy explained his love for blow up pool animals, or cringe as I watched a lady stings her self with bees.
Those Twitter pages feature people that I feel walk on both sides of the line. The way I see it addiction is an obsession that affects your body and becomes something that you cannot physically live without partaking. This would be the paint drinking lady, or the woman who eats mattresses. But I think that something has to be said for people like Michele Ivey, who was featured on Totally Obsessed as the turtle lady. When it comes to obsessions like Michele’s, you must think, wow that girl is crazy and if you believe that, fine. But she is really just an inspired fan of TMNT. It is much closer of an obsession to addiction than it is to excitement.
We walk this fine line every day in our own lives. We all long for things and find enjoyment in simple pleasures, but what happens when we become too overjoyed by the things of this world? We begin to spiral into obsession which can slowly become addiction.
C.S. Lewis said it best; “Don’t let your happiness depend on something you may lose.” In other words, he means seek God first for your happiness. Enjoyment in the things of this world are great, God gave us this world to enjoy, but when we obsess so heavily in them and allow ourselves to become addicted, it becomes bad. It becomes idolatry, and whether we mean it or not, we begin to worship things that are very undeserving, as only He is deserving of our obsession.
