The Silliness of Sisyphus

Sisyphus opened his eyes and looked around to see a mountain in front of him. A Small boulder weighing as much as he was, near his foot. He groggily stood up to assess his surroundings. He was wearing nothing but a loin cloth. Strangely there was nothing else except the mountain, a strange fog covered everything else. It was as if this was an ethereal plane.

Was this a dream? Was this a nightmare?

Just as Sisyphus was about to do the absurd act of pinching himself, an out worldly voice rained down from the clouds above

“All of you have sinned by trying to defeat death, the punishment is in front of you and is eternal. You will pick up the rock in front of you and carry it to the top of the mountain. Once you take it to the top, the rock will fall to the bottom of the mountain- the starting point. Climb down, Pick the rock up and Carry the rock back to the top again. Forever again.”

Sisyphus listened to it all with stunned silence, he did not have an inkling of recollection of this “defeat death” thing this voice was talking about but this voice did mention there were multiple people here. So he looked around. There were indeed a few people.

At least 20 or even more (he couldn’t count, due to the fog). He was about to sigh in relief and approach the person nearest to him to understand what is happening but paused as the person he was approaching suddenly bent over the rock and was focused on lifting it.

Sisyphus asked “Hey, hi there. My name is Sisyphus . What's your name ? " moving closer to him.

The other person looked at him with disdain “My name is Aditya, why are you distracting me? Go back to lifting your rock in your stupid track. Don’t waste my time. Don’t you see that this is a competition? I am a top 1 Percentile achiever and I want to maintain it”

Sisyphus in a stunned voice asked “What? What competition? What 1 percentile? The voice just announced that this is eternal and that this is a punishment? When did you guys decide on the percentile? “

Aditya derisively said “ I was right to tell the other guys to not wake you, you didn’t seem like premium material. We Tiered ourselves based on our characteristics and traits. I am Tier 1 category. The ones with red sand on their loincloth are Tier 2 and everybody else is Tier 3. That includes you too. Us Tier 1 people will try to focus on getting to the summit more times in a day per person and see if we can unlock any additional rewards “

Sisyphus was silent for a minute and then said “ you do realize that however many times you make it up the peak, the rock will come back down and we will have to repeat the task. There is no reward. The task itself is absurd”

Aditya snorted “ As I told you, you are a loser and I don’t want to be with somebody who has a loser mindset. This is not an absurd task. There is a larger purpose. If we achieve the First rank or the Top 1% of summit reaches am sure we will get a reward, else what is the point? "

With that Aditya started climbing the steep mountain with the heavy rock on his shoulder

Sisyphus had an absurd task in front of him. He recognized it was absurd and he realized there were three choices

1. Revolt – refuse to participate and just sit at the base and pass time for eternity

2. Freedom – Kill himself by putting the rock over his head

3. Passion – Lift the rock and make the climb while knowing it to be absurd

While he contemplated Option 1 & 2, he ultimately chose Option 3.

However, Sisyphus knew he will be mocked and ridiculed and outperformed daily by the Tier 1 candidates like Aditya et al . He also knew that there is not much passion in lifting a rock and taking it to the top of the mountain. But to duplicitously convince himself that there is somehow a purpose seemed a bigger fraud.

Sisyphus knew it was silly but smiled and picked up the rock

---

A few years had passed now, and there are but a handful of people. Others had chosen freedom. Aditya was climbing down the hill and noticed Sisyphus next to him.

A flash of anger came over him after he noticed that Sisyphus had a smile on his face

Aditya screamed at him “ What the hell are you smiling about? Do you know that I have 2 million trips up the mountain and that my average time up the mountain is 11.9 hours? Did you know that I have increased my speed by 5% Day on day over the last two years? What have you achieved you loser? Few thousand trips? Tier C Nobody !!!! Don’t smile asshole !!! "

With that Aditya stormed off, towards excellence.

---

An infinite number of millennia had passed by now .

There was only Sisyphus on the mountain, Alone. He hadn’t kept track of the number of trips or the speed or the time.

He still thought it was all silly and pointless. He knew there was no getting out. He knew there was no completion. He knew there was no goal. Yet here he was taking the rock up the hill one more time.

He was climbing down now to the bottom to make the next climb

And weirdly enough, he had a smile on his face.

"The struggle itself ... is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy".