Prey to Truths

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⢠⠁⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⡆⣼⣾⣿⣾⣿⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⣴⠁⠀⠚⣯⣾⣿⢫⣼⣿⣭⣿⣯⣶⣼
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Dancing in Space

I’ve wondered often as to the purpose of life, and what it means to be great. Not to sound nihilistic, but I do believe life, though beautiful, is a grand mistake. We may plant trees, build cities, and touch the stars, but no sooner do we perform these things than, on the cosmic scale, the trees wither, the cities crumble, and the stars die. Why try, then? To answer this, I will first enumerate the story of a king, a hill, and a rock.

Tricking Heaven

At a time when Greece was subject to the authority of Mt. Olympus, there lived a king by the name of Sisyphus. He was a mischievous, arrogant, and clever man. When it was his time to die, the Greek deity of death, Thanatos, arrived before him with chains to bind his soul for their voyage to the Underworld. Not yet ready to accept death, Sisyphus asked Thanatos to demonstrate the mechanism out of feigned curiosity. Thanatos complied, and Sisyphus promptly locked the restraints, caging Thanatos and the concept of death. Nobody in the mortal realm could die, and this infuriated Ares, who needed death to fuel war. He freed Thanatos and called for the execution of Sisyphus. Knowing this would come, Sisyphus asked his wife not to bury his body. Upon his death, Sisyphus went to Persephone, Queen of the Underworld, and reasoned that since his wife had not properly honored his corpse, he must be given temporary leave to the mortal realm to correct her. She granted him this right, and once Sisyphus returned to his home, he simply never returned. Finally, Hermes personally retrieved the king and presented him to be tried for punishment. Sisyphus was placed at the foot of a tall hill with a sizable boulder. The Gods told him that, should he succeed in rolling the rock to the top of the hill, he would be allowed to return home. However, no matter how close Sisyphus was or how hard he tried, the rock was doomed to inevitably roll back to the start. The myth ends with this eternal loop of rewardless effort, and was perhaps meant to teach the foolishness of defying Heaven. This interpretation was forefront until 1942, when French philosopher Albert Camus published The Myth of Sisyphus ¹ and with it a different take on the tale. In his work, Camus argues that, rather than a villain and a warning against defiance, Sisyphus is an absurd hero. His passion for life, his multiple cheats of death, and his grand defiance of Heaven ultimately resulted in an unending fate with no meaning. During his descent back down the hill to meet his boulder, Sisyphus is beholden to the entire condition of his being. If asked, one can find neither joy nor purpose in his existence. Yet, for some absurd reason, Sisyphus tries again. In the beginning, it must have seemed hard, what with the familiarity of his prior life still fresh in his mind. But eventually, all that is left in the rebellious king’s world is the rock and the task. His burden. And without fail, time and time again ad infinitum, he meets it. If this is his fate, why despair? Can’t he view the cards he has been dealt with joy? He may look above the hill, see the Heavens and the illusions of what may be, but the rock is real, and the ground is real, and he can do no more than to let his effort be his purpose. He concludes that all is well, and that he will keep pushing.

Delusion

There is no inherent purpose to life, and no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The story of life has, from the beginning, been a story of rebellion and struggle. We are here, and there are hard things to do, so we will do them. Witnessing a difficulty, announcing your refusal to accept it, and applying effort unceasingly and absurdly to it is the human condition. It is the point and the meaning. Life is about being absurd, and living life on your own terms despite the circumstances. So I hope you struggle on, and I will see you at the party at the end of the world.

“The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

— Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus