The gods who had condemned him to this unrelenting work were, no doubt, busy conducting their godlike duties. ![]() “No!”, he quickly uttered – “this does not make my work more meaningful, at least, not to me”. Visualizing this change, he saw himself staggering to hoist the stone to his shoulders, as opposed to mercifully pushing it, which even the condemning gods had allowed. Extrapolating out this line-of-thought he imagined for a moment that the stone he was fated to transport was even bigger, and the mountain’s slope now more severe than ever before. This type of work was respected by the throngs who constitute quote, ‘Society’. Sisyphus, in a memory that harked back to his youth, suddenly remembered he had learned that real, honest, and respected work had to be both hard in nature, and long of duration. But his smile was cut-short as he quickly arrived at the conclusion that this new development would not be the meaningful change he sought. The idea of working to create something, even if only an aimless pile of rocks and pebbles captivated him on his slow retreat down the mountain. A smile slowly crossed his face as he began to visualize that his efforts would now, at least, produce something – even if only a pile of rocks atop his mountain of work. As he pushed his boulders to the mountaintop they would begin to accumulate into a pile. He now imagined that the boulder did not roll back down the mountain at all. Upon further reflection, Sisyphus entertained another idea and even bigger improvement so he thought. So he asked himself, ‘Would this improve the condition of my work?” After a tittle of thought, Sisyphus confessed that this change would help physically, but sadly, only physically. He figured, yes, the pebble would still roll back down the hill, but being just a pebble, it would be easy to retrieve and transport back up the hill. As he considered this material improvement, he debated if this would be the key change he was actually seeking in his fateful work. His first thought led him to the idea that instead of a big boulder, he was actually fated to transport just a small pebble up a hill. He pondered how this work could be advanced and made, at least a bit more, meaningful. Sisyphus, on this particular return, began to contemplate, even agonize over the question of how he could ever improve the nature of this unrelenting labor that filled his days. Hanging his head, and taking a deep breath he dispiritedly began his descent. ![]() The following essay encompasses a number of ideas from various philosophers, notably Richard Taylor, plus a few of my own all melded into a story.Īfter another arduous trip lugging his rock up the mountain, a forlorn Sisyphus, once again, watched as his rock begin to tumble back down the mountain-side. In Albert Camus’s book, The Myth of Sisyphus, the French writer noted that as Sisyphus walked back down the mountain to retrieve his boulder he would have been afforded the time to contemplate his fate to consider his situation. At the beginning of each day, Sisyphus’s hourglass, filled with uninspiring work, was simply flipped over primed for another day. As ordained by the powers-to-be, this was to become Sisyphus’s life: fruitless, unrelenting, repetitive, and worse – unimportant labor. Sisyphus was punished with the futile work of pushing a boulder up a mountain, whereupon reaching the top, the boulder unfailingly, and instantly tumbled back down to the bottom. Most all have heard of the Greek mythological figure Sisyphus, who was sentenced by the Gods for being deceitful, and even a murderer of travelers through his country.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |