Yeah, I just bought a PS-3 so I guess I'll be doing that for a while now ;)

There are certain ingredients of life we must have if we are to be in balance with ourselves. They have no particular order of importance but each is equally important. For example, if you were to write these nine things down on a 3X5 card giving them virtually equal space (in blocks) you will see exactly what I mean. These are the ingredients: Personal Growth, Relationships, Friends, Leisure, Work, Higher Self (Alone Time), Family, Hobby, Contribution (to the betterment of mankind). You may substitute Study for work and what have you...whatever applies to your life/world. Each of these things needs to be balanced within your life in order for life not to become lop-sided. Now, that is not to say that at times in one's life one must devote more energy and time than they normally would or could but those are exceptions.

Now, each of these things alone can be brought to obsession by devoting an inordinate amount of time to it and virtually ignoring something one finds expendable. When one does that, it throws the entire field out of balance and chaos rears its head until things are once again in sync or balanced. As an example...See what happens when there is a close family member that is gravely ill. It changes everything for everyone.

Obsession is something you can choose to be without or curtail. Addiction has none of the choices we like to have in life because addiction becomes your life. Many people have obsessive/compulsive disorders and can have stability, such as a job, in their lives to a point. Many addicts hide their addictions so well that no one would ever know anything was wrong until they hit their bottom with it all. Both obsession and addiction is about not caring about anything else other than those things. An addict, however, is more prone to lose it all and justify it. I mean a marriage, children, a home, family members, work and anything else they have in order to pay for their addiction. Obsessiveness does not necessarily cost all those things but one...FAMILY!

Maintaining stability within obsession is extraordinarily difficult. It can be done but you must calculate the cost and be willing to pay it. In my opinion there cannot be stability within obsession. By its very definition, obsession IS unstable. When you speak of proximity to danger, I don't quite know what type of danger you are speaking of, however, it most certainly can have something to do with stability if you are cognizant of the danger and its degree. Hypothetically the stable life becoming unstable may very well rest on any given situation...depending on how it impacts the obsession or addiction. Your last question is a very interesting one. Jeopardizing one's way of life is not necessarily a terrible or destabilizing factor. It can be just the opposite. Again, hypothetically...let's assume you are a Professor of Philosophy at an Ivy League school and have been so for 20 years. You call me and say Chris, I'm quitting my job, packing my clothes and moving to the Island of Sylt in the North Sea! Why would you do that when you have a life here that is stable, make good money, kept a good portfolio, and have hundreds of friends that you'd be leaving...blah, blah, blah? Because the North Sea is beautiful, not polluted and the way of life there is a simple one. I want to open a guest house to preserve its way of doing things there and buy up some of the unprotected land so that no Hotel chain can ever come to build there! Yes, you would jeopardize your life as you know it and everyone you know will think you're insane but will it make you unstable? No because for your life, at that juncture, it makes great sense to you and it's something you would love to do instead of teaching the same thing for another 20 years.

I truly hope I've answered some questions for you. If not...the lines are always open if I've misunderstood something you were asking. Life is about balance...and one must change priorities as life unfolds. No life is static.