In Greek Mythology, we learn the story of Sisyphus. He was a king; a mighty man with great ambition, interest and power. The stories told of his earthly life tells us that he was witty, crafty and very clever. Yet this is not why we remember him. After his death, he made a deal with Persephone which allowed him to return from the land of the dead to set some minor affairs in order so that he could rest. However, this was all part of an elaborate ruse, and he had no intent of ever returning to the halls of the dead. Eventually, Hermes had to go look for him, find him, and forcibly bring him down to Hades.
His punishment for this transgression was to forever more push a boulder up a hill and then watch it roll down again, only to repeat the process.
The interpretations of this story are legion, ranging from it being an allegorical explanation of the movement of the sun across the heavens to being a tale about the hard work that it is to be a human. Some have chosen to regard it as a story about the punishment one gets when one transgresses the law of the Gods. According to Albert Camus, the story of Sisyphus was a personification of the absurdity of human life.
My own interpretation is not far from that of Albert Camus. I chose to interpret it as a strict warning by means of example. We all look at Sisyphus and his endless task and pity him; it must be thankless work to push the boulder up the hill, only to see it roll down and have to start all over again. There is nobody there to congratulate him when he gets it all the way up the hill and nobody to commiserate with him after it has rolled down; there is only his mind-numbingly dull routine. He knows that he has no means of escape from these tasks and that he will never be free again.
Despite this terrible warning, all of us fall into Sisyphusian routines of our own.
I’m sure that all of you, given time, can find your very own Sisyphus. It may be your job; the place where you go every day and drudge through, not getting any pleasure, respect, recognition or the salary you deserve. It may be the relationship you’re in; the partner that you know is bad for you and which gives you the impression that he/she doesn’t really care if you live or die. It could be the computer game that you sit down in front of every evening, going through the motions of having fun instead of actually enjoying it the way we used to. It may even be the creative project you started – a book, an album, a web page or a quilt you’re sowing – but that you’re now just spending time on without getting anywhere in particular.
We are all Sisyphus and we all owe it to ourselves to identify these areas of our lives. We all need to ask ourselves if what we’re doing is truly worth it or if we’re just going through the motions because of sheer force of habit or because of we fear what we would have if we were to abandon it.
Find your Sisyphus.
. While the book itself didn’t promise to automatically create gold and riches for any of us, it asked a series of very relevant questions and showed us by means of an example how people can make a good life for themselves. It was inspirational, to say the very least.