one must imagine Sisyphus happy

 

I just spent the last hour learning about Sisyphus, a myth, and Albert Camus, a famous French philosopher. Camus said, “One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

So what is all this, who is Sisyphus, why must we imagine him happy, why did Camus say that? (And what am I yapping)

 

Trail Of Thoughts - 33

Sisyphus is a Greek mythology story. The shorter version is that he was an extremely overconfident and arrogant king, basically hubristic. He cheated on death twice and the Gods got mad at him and gave him a punishment. The punishment was for him to push a boulder, a giant rock, to the top of a steep hill and just when he would reach the top, the Gods would make the boulder slide down making Sisyphus start all over again. This was to last an eternity. For AN ETERNITY, this guy should push a giant rock up a hill just for it to fall again and again and again.

 

So why did Albert Camus say that one must imagine Sisyphus happy? Why must one imagine a never-ending punishment as something good? His theory was that there are many challenges in life. One must not wait for the challenges to be done but rather face them. He says we should not wait for happiness or money or power, we should just be happy. If we want something, when will that ever be enough once we get it? We should all live now, in the present, rather than wait for a happy future and resent every minute now. 

This was such an optimistic view of life that I was smiling the whole time. I always say that life is too short to wait and we should all live now, in now, in the present. Not to sound cringe/corny but the present IS a gift. For someone who has an existential crisis every now and then, this was refreshing.

 

I’m not perfect too. I always think about my future when I’m all done and retired and when I don’t have to do anything at all. But it’s very far away and I can’t just wait for 50 years to experience freedom. I can find happiness and peace in the little things I already have. Like for example, during recess in college, we are allowed to go to shops for fun and eat ice-cream.

 

I remember when I was younger; I would savour every bit of chocolate, ice cream, of course, chocolate ice-cream. As I grew up, I didn't feel like waiting for the moment or wanting to experience it over a period. Now I eat chocolate and ice-cream whenever I want and however fast I want (of course I reap the consequence of 3 days of cold and the cycle repeats).

 

My point is that when you start living in the present, in the moment, you experience joy bigger than anything.

The whole point of the theory is to start loving what you do rather than finding meaning in this meaningless universe. When you chase the butterfly, you’ll never catch it, but when you’re in the garden you built with patience, the butterflies come to you.

 

For me, I love accountancy so I don’t really find it that big of a chore when I study it. I am not made to study it; I’m not being forced because I already do it so lovingly. I don’t want to find the meaning in ‘current previous year’ but hey I’m happy. (I’m kidding, I have to find the meaning, and it’s an important phrase in tax. I’m obliged to know and understand the meaning. My intention was that I don’t have to find deeper meanings on why I should know what it is. I just have to know it, nothing philosophical.)

 

As they say, “Do what you love but when that fails, try loving what you do”.

 

One must imagine Sisyphus happy; it would really not be a punishment if he loved what he was doing.

~The End~

some comments on a video i saw that stuck out the most:

"Because he gets better and better at pushing the ball and doing something to perfection is one of the purest forms of joy."

"Sisyphus is literally all of us when we struggle day to day. Sisyphus is happy because each day he gets a little closer to a new high, just as we get a closer to our goal, and once its accomplished, while we dont start from 0 like Sisyphus, we start something new again, which is a new kind of 0."

 

that was my take on life.

if you liked this, you will probably like this: Puella aeterna literally means eternal girl. just read it, it's better read as a whole than as a snippet.

TDD- ten day diary

hiii!!!!!!

it beeen a loooong dayyy without you, my friend

. 

so i havent been around lately, missed me?
my past few days have been good. i got a new phone!!! and the pictures are insanely good, im telling you.

Here are some:

i loveeee treeees and sunnnnnn (in olaf voice when he speaks of summer)

fun fact: this is my wallpaper  -

ok i never tried pictures so ya here we goooo

have a great great great pride month and men's mental health month.

check on the men in your life and the homosexuals too.

<333

spreading loveeeeeeeeeeeeee

 im in a good mood