Sísifo’s myth

Reading some pieces of writing I’ve been finding in the Internet, I read about the myth of Sísifo. He had been an evil man on earth so he had to be punished. The gods thought that there was no punishment harder than the nonsense and hopeless work, so he was condemned to push a rock up a hill and when it reached the top it would fall down and he would have to push it again. He suffers pushing the rock, his tense body, all covered in sweat, his hands full of dirt, and both hands pushing sometimes helped by his shoulder or his foot. He walks the same path thousands of times and finally reaches the top once more. But the stone starts falling down and in only a few seconds is back from where he will have to push it up again.

What Sísifo shows the world with his myth is that destiny comes and when it does, people should solve and face it as humans, suffering with it or enjoying it if that’s what may come. Sísifo shows he is stronger than the rock. The happiness of this strong man consists of that. He is the owner of his destiny. The rock is his rock. His heart is fulfilled by the effort that taking the rock up the mountain requires.

So, the importance isn’t in pushing the rock but in how we do it. It doesn’t matter how many times we take the rock up and it falls down again. What matters is to know that each time we do it in a different way. The rock can feel different things according to how we push it, how much effort we do, how strong we get time after time. After each time the rock falls down the hill without valuing the effort one does to lift it up, we grow stronger. Each climbing pushing the rock teaches us something new. And this was how Sísifo reached happiness pushing the rock over and over again knowing that it would fall down anyway.