Sisyphus

• Albert Camus believed that happiness could be achieved by not only accepting the absurdity of the meaningless cycle of a dull and repetitive lackluster life, but by facing and embracing it with every bit of one’s potential. He was effected by the plight of the factory workers who, like drones, lived lives where their pain and dedication brought no happiness and left them feeling hopeless. In response to this, Camus wrote The Myth of Sisyphus, a scenario with a main character whom I imagine had many of his own characteristics: stubbornness, wisdom, scorn for the Gods, and a passion for life. Sisyphus defied the Gods and refused to accept a life void of meaning, eternally pushing a bolder up a hill only to let gravity pull it back down. A life designed to be, “…exerted toward accomplishing nothing.” But Sisyphus, full of rebellion, refused to give up fighting, declaring that, “There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn,” and his fueled him to become the master of his own fate in several ways. He acknowledged and gladly accepted the fact that it was his own actions that led him to his determine his fate. As such, he had taken that power away from the Gods, placing it in his own hands. He looked at the rock as ‘his rock,’ familiarizing himself with its qualities, and then evaluated his task. Each time he reached the heights, before his descent, Sisyphus enjoyed a feeling of triumph and saw his power as being greater than that of the rock, and in glorious defiance of the Gods.. The rock was NOT his enemy, but an instrument through which he found purpose and kept his passion alive. He then focused on those lucid moments of consciousness when he was aware of both his dominance over and partnership with the rock. It was just part of a cycle in which he had a purpose. He saw that he was accomplishing a limited task within his ability, satisfied that he was working to his full potential, and squarely facing his situation rather than trying to escape it. He felt this was more than the factory workers were able to accomplish, and I think his creator, Camus, wanted to show them a way to find internal happiness where they couldn’t be completely controlled by ‘the man.’ He stated that, “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” He was his own master and had found meaning in his existence without having to use suicide to escape.
• Nowhere in The Myth of Sisyphus did Camus address the option of suicide. In fact, he talked of Sisyphus’ desire to avoid death. But Camus, in his Suicide as a Response to Absurdity seemed very concerned with removing suicide as even a remote consideration. I think he felt an obligation to help lift the constant burden of a fruitless life. To those who didn’t have the religious dogma promising that their misery on earth was to be tolerated as long as they thought they would meet their maker and enjoy a life after this, Camus gave an alternate path to hope and purpose. To those who held onto the hope of being with God, he said,”..it is absurd to hope for some form of continued existence after death given the the latter results in our extinction.” In other words, it’s absurd to live a miserable life in hopes of something happening after death, so get what you can out of life now. So, he purposely avoided having Sisyphus consider either suicide or God as a solution. When asked, “Under what conditions is suicide warranted?” Camus says there is NO condition that warrants it, and reminds us that the act of suicide removes any chance of life, period! There is no soft and fuzzy fairy tale ending, no second chance! He wants us to quit expecting the outside world to provide us with nostalgic props that make us feel touched or even acknowledged by what is outside of us. He warns us not to look for something in an empty vessel that has no capability of offering of love, hope, or happiness. We must create our own happiness and it can only be found when we learn to live with, “the certainty of a crushing fate,” Life guarantees nothing.

I can’t help but agree with Camus’ philosophy and conclusion that Sisyphus is happy. It follows a perfectly rational train of thought and offers hope while deterring the unsatisfactory option of suicide. But, I have a problem with the reality of it being grasped today by all but a few unique or extremely desperate people. Sisyphus was in a confined situation where he had no outside sources. We, on the other hand, live in a world where magic pills, potions, and programs are constantly thrown in our faces as quick solutions to whatever ails us. I think we’ve been taught to look for quick fixes that promise us what we think we lack. Apparently these solutions aren’t working too well because the suicide rate among our youth is staggering. Perhaps it’s because we are not taught to relentlessly pursue happiness or even those skills that may lead to it.

We learn to define happiness by what we see on screens and are taught to cut corners to get our piece of the pie before it’s gone. It begins in preschool when well-meaning teachers find they can only feed the answers to students because they haven’t been trained adequately and end up having to learn on the job. They struggle, go to extra classes, meet with mentors, and finally must admit to themselves they they have no clue about teaching the art of learning. Students who struggle and don’t meet expected timelines, many of them very bright and capable, are either labeled or left behind due to the unreasonable demands put on teachers to produce scores. Those who find the curriculum too easy or boring aren’t challenged because managing the struggling students takes immediate priority. Both students and teachers become victims of a system that doesn’t work. So we produce frustrated people who are understandably disillusioned, rebellious, and unhappy. Again, we look to our screens to find solutions to our crappy lives and are bombarded with all sorts of remedies. We can become more beautiful, thinner, or sexier, make more money and buy better ‘things.’ Of course, there is no shortage of products that offer a way to happiness: pills, drugs, booze, credit cards, vacations with unlimited food and beverages, the perfect girlfriend or husband, health foods, exercise, you name it. We blame and scorn those around us, pick our poison, and continue our miserable lives, not knowing what happiness really looks like or how to get it.

At best, we attempt to follow Sisyphus’ example and find a purpose within our limited lives, one that affords us a bit of satisfaction and keeps us from resorting to suicide. If we’re lucky, we find our rock, make it an ally, and use it to embrace that which haunts us.

My rock is alcoholism. Although it’s not a fate I would chose, like Sisyphus, I have come to know everything I can about it, have developed a healthy respect for it, and fully embrace it rather than looking at it as the enemy. Alcoholism, like Sisyphus’ rock, will always be a part of me and I choose not to escape it or waste my energy fighting it. But unlike Sisyphus, whose strength and relentlessness surpass mine, I am not isolated and can take advantage of outside help. And I do.. After regaining clarity and health and losing the obsession to drink, I was able to determine a place to begin, a plan of what I needed to do. Just as Sisyphus, I examined myself and my surroundings, finding what I needed to give me some sense of satisfaction or bring some meaning to my life. And like him, I found that it was an inside job. Our ‘rocks’ weren’t our problem, it was how we viewed them and allowed them to take away our power.

Sisyphus and I both had to find a level of increased awareness that wasn’t controlled by our ego or dependent on outside sources. We couldn’t assign blame or expect others to approve of us or provide us with what we needed. We accepted the absurdity of our condition, knowing that we had created our own darkness and that, “There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night.” We had been, and still could be, the “Master of his, (our) days.” Exactly how we interact with our ‘rock’ would determine our fate. We could either fight it and inevitably allow it to crush us, or embrace it, find a purposeful relationship with it, and move forward with every ounce of our passion for life reaching, ...”the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks.”