Have You Read “The Myth of Sisyphus”?
To live with a purpose, even in the face of nothingness.
The Myth of Sisyphus is a 1942 philosophical essay written by a French philosopher, Albert Camus. The essay revolves around the myth of Sisyphus, a character from Greek mythology who is under punishment from the gods due to his act of cheating death. He was sentenced to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down every time it neared the top — looping for an eternity. Camus, enthralled by the allegory, starts questioning what if we are experiencing the same situation as Sisyphus—what would be our decision? To end our life because that repetitive ‘life’ is not worth living? Or as how Camus describes it :
All Sisyphus’ silent joy is contained therein. His fate belongs to him.
For the rest, he knows himself to be the master of his days. At that subtle moment when man glances backward over his life, Sisyphus returning toward his rock, in that slight pivoting he contemplates that series of unrelated actions which become his fate, created by him, combined under his memory’s eye and soon sealed by his death.
knowing that despite in the cycle of eternity — we will struggle — processing our ‘punishment’ under our own pace, to be content even if that boulder will roll down back to the bottom.
We and Sisyphus Are in the Same Boat After All
Rising, street-car, four hours in the office or the factory, meal, street-car, four hours of work, meal, sleep, and Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and Saturday according to the same rhythm — this path is easily followed most of the time. But one day the “why” arises and everything begins in that weariness tinged with amazement. “Begins” — this is important.
We and Sisyphus have one thing in common, both of us are under the cycle of hardship knowing that at the end of the road, it will all lead to futility (for us, death). Yet Camus said, such thing might bring two possible outcomes from this repetition :
At the end of the awakening comes, in time, the consequence: suicide or recovery.
We can’t blame someone wanting to put an end to his/her journey due to series of misfortune through their life, and that’s the essence of the world itself, absurdity with no bounds. No matter how hard we try, persist, the world will always hide something from us. The happiness and joy we felt today might change into grief later at night or probably the very next minute and our worries about it, are what we called anxiety. Words alone can’t convince someone to grip tight on his life, but through this, I want to send a message to everyone who is under the suffering of life.
Suicide, like the leap, is acceptance at its extreme. Everything is over and man returns to his essential history. His future, his unique and dreadful future — he sees and rushes toward it. In its way, suicide settles the absurd. It engulfs the absurd in the same death. But I know that in order to keep alive, the absurd cannot be settled. It escapes suicide to the extent that it is simultaneously awareness and rejection of death. It is, at the extreme limit of the condemned man’s last thought, that shoelace that despite everything he sees a few yards away, on the very brink of his dizzying fall.
The world is unpredictable, yes I already said it before but unpredictable means that the future itself, as Camus said, is unique and dreadful. We all will embrace the death eventually but between us and the time of death, there are countless series of possible experiences waiting ahead which might rekindle your passion, your revolt, and as you experience how absurd the world is you will gradually start to feel indifference and experience the world as it is, not as how you expected it — thus creating your sense of freedom.
For You, To Stay Strong Until the Very End
Life is indeed a series of suffering, we can’t argue with that. But what we should realize is that the biggest relief, joy, happiness that we felt in life are a result of us overcoming that high obstacle and where there is a clarity solution to your anxiety. Yes, there are limits on how much we can tolerate that pain in a set amount of time but just like what Friedrich Nietzsche, a German philosopher said, he acknowledges that the person who can endure the greatest suffering is the greatest of men among all.
My wish is for you, to live long and prosper, and then be able to recount your life and with confidence, you said: “I’ll gladly repeat it all again if I have ever given the chance”. because at that point, it means you have properly lived your meaningful life.
