The labor of Sisyphus
"This work turned into Sisyphus' labor..."
Probably, many of my readers are at least slightly interested in mythology. The strange part is that mythology has given enough examples of today’s current problems thousands of years ago. The character I will talk about today is Sisyphus, who was sentenced to the most severe punishment. Let’s clarify what this "Sisyphus labor" is before we go to this great statement:
Sisyphus is the king of the underworld in ancient Greek mythology. Sisyphus, who is very clever and cunning, who complains to the gods and has an ungrateful and dignified attitude towards them, chaining even death itself to a rock for his benefit, finally receives the punishment he deserves from the underworld. The gods of the underworld condemn him to rolling stones forever; each time you approach the target, the stone falls down again.
This is where the expression "Sisyphus’s work" came from. The phrase is a metaphor used to symbolize repetitive labor that is not only difficult, but frustratingly unrewarding
Albert Camus, winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature, wrote in his short essay "The Myth of Sisyphus" (1940) that Sisyphus's fate and his endless efforts were not in vain. He says, "If the descent [that is, Sisyphus returning to the bottom of the mountain and starting to push the rock up again] is sometimes done with sorrow, it can also be done with joy." And "The struggle to the heights is enough to fill one's heart. It is necessary to imagine that Sisyphus is happy."
Here Camus touched on the Yin-Yang philosophy with a different perspective. According to philosophy, there is a strong interaction of two opposite energies, affirming that there is a constant exchange of life energies. This model reflects the idea that there are no opposites – there is no absolute boundary between black (yin) and white (yang); the yin point exists in yang and the yang point in yin and involves the coexistence of opposite elements in the same environment
That is, a special force actually emboldens us to do the "labor of Sisyphus", which is incredible pain, unrewarded labor and frustratingly futile effort. This strength is the hope that does not leave us even in the darkest days.
Because it is more than a wish. It is a mixture of optimism and determination.
You have $1.79 in your bank account, your rent is due today, and you don't get paid for a week. Is it still possible to hope that your financial situation will improve? Absolutely. Hope can exist even in the face of the most difficult situations and emotions. Hope is more than a wish because it requires optimism and willpower.
Hope is a learnable state of mind.
Sometimes even trying to lift a rock to its farthest point forever, knowing that it will return to its place, is hope...
References:
http://www.garlikov.com/philosophy/Sisyphus.html
https://www.britannica.com/topic/yinyang
https://www.dovepress.com/applying-a-yinyang-perspective-to-the-theory-of-paradox-a-review-of-ch-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-PRBM#:~:text=In%20Chinese%20philosophy%2C%20the%20union,is%20a%20state%20of%20equilibrium.&text=The%20yin%E2%80%93yang%20model%20captures,yang%20also%20exists%20in%20yin
https://psychcentral.com/blog/the-psychology-of-hope
Sisyphus and the Labour of Imagination: Autonomy, Cultural Production, and the Antinomies of Worker Self-Management / Stevphen Shukaitis1/Pdf
