On Life & Death
How You Can Combat the Purposelessness of Life Forever
For those who think that life holds a unique purpose for everyone, you are in for a shock
Unfortunately or not, you are mortal…
The realisation sits in my heart like a heavy weight.
Most of us have experienced bouts of feeling purposeless. It dawns with the realisation that you are mortal… and you will die one day. You will leave all you have done behind and enter into the unknown, possibly losing your consciousness forever.
The hopelessness makes sense.
Why take umbrage when it won’t bloody matter in a few decades?
I got upset when I thought about the subject hard. I looked at my shelf full of books, my notebooks where I have built my own world, my friends, my family members, myself, and the efforts I had put into everything. Sooner or later, a day would come when my hard work’s value will be nullified.
It is natural to feel anger at this aspect of life. Nobody can prove that we’ll land in heaven, get reborn, or roam as spirits.
So yeah, life is meaningless.
The end.
Nah, not yet. Life is a miracle. I am here to prove the fact that you don’t have to live while actually being dead inside for forty years or so.
Remember when you were a child? When you would squeal in delight at the thought of hearing a story? Get that excitement back again and plop down on your sofa with popcorn, because I am going to narrate the tale of a nasty man who I believe got a happy ending.
Of course, it will be a Greek tale, but with a twist.
The Punishment of Sisyphus…
(Can we take a moment to admire what a pathetic name Sisyphus is? Thanks.)
Fate had given Sisyphus a grandiose start. He was the king of a prosperous land, Corinth. Instead of ruling like an average king and passing the crown to his heir, Sisyphus had a yearning to never die — a desire he intended to fulfil.
I know, I know — big mistake. You don’t fuss with Hades.
When Sisyphus died for the first time, he somehow captured Thanatos, who is the effing personification of Death! The former tied him up and went to the living world again. No humans died as a result. Ares, the war god, later came to help, and Death was freed to pursue his natural work.
The second time he died, Sisyphus’ eloquent tongue came to use.
Sisyphus had told his wife to not perform the conventional rituals on his dead body. In the underworld, he persuaded Hades to let him out back into the bright realm of the living so that he could make sure the rites were performed properly. Persephone’s kind heart sympathised.
The evil guy was freed again and lived to old age since Thanatos wanted to avoid him as much as he could.
I have to admire Sisyphus’ guts because he managed to cheat death. Not once, but twice. Damn.
Yet, the consequences weren’t pretty. Zeus was enraged. The king of the gods had to make sure that humans would not be encouraged by the feats of this trickster.
Here’s what he was eternally (literally) punished with, as Odyssey witnessed:
Then I witnessed the torture of Sisyphus, as he wrestled with a huge rock with both hands. Bracing himself and thrusting with hands and feet, he pushed the boulder uphill to the top.
But every time, as he was about to send it toppling over the crest, its sheer weight turned it back, and once again towards the plain the pitiless rock rolled down.
So once more he had to wrestle with the thing and push it up, while the sweat poured from his limbs and the dust rose high above his head. (Odyssey, Book 11:593)
But Sisyphus IS happy…
Sisyphus’ task is pointless beyond measure.
Zeus had made sure that the guy would never be able to complete it. And yet, in the book The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus, the author states an unexpected opinion — that Sisyphus didn’t live the rest of his life as tragically as we think.
Our existence is similar to Sisyphus’. Life is pointless for both of us. You are going to die, and the boulder is going to roll down again.
How can anyone be happy after knowing this?
Acceptance is the answer.
Endorse the meaninglessness of life.
That doesn’t end things for you. Rather, it is a start. Now that you know you have no designated purpose in your life, you can make one! Treat life like an empty canvas, ready to get doused in whatever colours you choose to paint it with. Choose what is meaningful for you and what isn’t.
You have the ultimate freedom!
We can embrace the absurdity and create meaning for ourselves through our actions.
As Camus concluded beautifully:
I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain!
One always finds one’s burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world.
The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
Your choice to make…
If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.
See? Life is a miracle, after all. The choice is yours! You get to set the purpose! You get to designate the meaning! Even better if you veer your actions for a good cause, for that’ll help you achieve inner satisfaction.
In the end, Sisyphus accepted his fate and became as self-contended as he could.
The question is, what will your choice be? Denying and getting depressed by the doom — or accepting fate as it is and relishing whatever precious moments you have left?
All on your shoulders, boss.
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