Sisyphus and why must we imagine him happy

Introduction

In Greek mythology, there is a dude called Sisyphus or Sisyphos. He was a tyrant ruler who killed visitors to show off his power. The Greek gods came together to punish him and gave him a very unique punishment. He had to roll up a boulder from the bottom of a mountain to the top, but whenever he reached the top the boulder would topple down and he was forced to repeat the process again.

The action of rolling the boulder to the top only for it to come down is described as laborious or futile. Like how much ever energy he expends the boulder will come down regardless. It is futile for Sisyphus to roll up the stone but its his curse, so he must do it anyway.

Sisyphus and happiness

I saw a quote which made me actually write this blog. The quote was, “The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” – Albert Camus, ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’

The thing is, Sisyphus does not have a choice, he has to toil and burn under the sun, only for the boulder to roll down from the mountain top. Similarly, sometimes we do not have a choice, we are tasked with burdensome tasks that require lots of work only for it to be useless in the end.

Sometimes we are forced to work for something which we know is of no use but its essential we work for it. We might be given homework which is useless to the syllabus. But the professor said that if you do not do the homework, you will lose marks in internals.

Here we are forced to roll the boulder which we do not want to, forced to write something which is of no use. In these moments the mind is riddled with frustration, feeling of doom, and never ending hopelessness.

BUT, what if you imagine Sisyphus happy, that is the only way. If you imagine Sisyphus suffering, you yourself will suffer, but if you imagine him smiling, happy, joyful, you will notice a change in you.

Conclusion

So, dear reader, choose to be happy when you face a Sisyphus like situation. Cause whatever you do you are doomed to be frustrated.

I do not know if I gave a worthy expansion to the quote but I tried my best….

Thank You <3

Do read my other blogs:

The trap of social media and how we have been reduced to a lesser form

What will you do after school?

The bluebird in our heart that does not fly