OCD-BIAGW

Last week someone asked if I had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder "...but in a good way."

The intent of the question was positive. I had delivered many extra hours towards completing several projects.

Yet the question revealed an interesting paradox -- this idea of "good compulsion." Or disorder that appears quite intentional. Or times when obsession harnessed for outcome is okay, perhaps even admired.

Isn't this idea -- of OCD "but in a good way" -- a definition of the prototypical creative? The jazz musician ablaze. The ardent painter. Steve Jobs.

And isn't it, despite its perils, admired, even sought?

It is. Despite the perils.

No fault can be given for caring and laboring to produce the best work possible. Hey, if we're not willing to push the limits, our own especially, then why bother playing the game at all? I suppose you can pay people to be obsessive, but it won't last.

The friction, from order to disorder, is communal. One person's compulsion is another's time with their loved ones. Which is to say the salvation is also communal. What makes "OCD but in a good way" tenable is a fellowship willing to dive deeply.

Thanks then, to those I dove alongside.