In Greek mythology, Sisyphus played tricks on
the gods to get what he wanted. The gods condemn Sisyphus -- his
punishment: rolling a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down to the
bottom each time he finally gets it to the top. Frustratingly futile,
unrewarding, repetitive labor.
With relocation there is a certain expanse of time that must
be surrendered to the moving process. At
the point of origin, every household item is scrutinized: Do I really need this? Do I even want this? Does it go in the throw-away,
the give-away, or the take-it-with-me pile?
Room by room. Item by item. Once
the donations are made and the trash is out, and the keepers are packed and
loaded, the process repeats at the point of destination: Do I still want this? Do I still need this? Does it work in this new location, this new
house, this new room? Add to that: What is broken? What went missing (We’ve “lost” complete US
State Quarters collections, a bench grinder, a floor lamp, great grandmother’s
milk pitcher,…). A good four months is
spent in this process each time a move is made. And this does not take into consideration
things like closing accounts and finding physicians and transferring license
plates and registrations… To date, I’ve moved eight times. That means I’ve spent nearly three years packing
and unpacking stuff. A person could do
a lot in three years: get a graduate degree, write the great American novel, hike
the Appalachian Trail several times over.
So I wonder, am I the rock? Am I Sisyphus?
In his work The Value of Labor and
the Myth of Sisyphus, professor and philosopher
Rick Garlikov writes:
…there is
one remaining attribute of Sisyphus' labor, and I see no way to imagine it
produces happiness, nobility, or redemption. It has nothing to do with
the repetitiveness of the act, its difficulty, the brevity of its achievement,
or its potential futility. It is that the act of rolling this boulder up
this hill serves no useful purpose… It accomplishes nothing but getting
the rock from here to there.
Moving
the rock makes a difference in the universe, but a difference that is without
distinction, without merit, without benefit. Sisyphus has added no value
to the universe by taking the rock from the bottom of the hill to its crest.
As a
metaphor for part of the human condition and the plight of some people -- even
those often considered most successful because we mistakenly think change is
progress or that there are no hollow victories -- the myth of Sisyphus is a sad
commentary. The work of far too many people has been, and continues to
be, pushing a rock up a hill merely to change its location.
Has a positive change in the universe
occurred each time Steven and I plucked ourselves up and set ourselves down in
a new location – even if ambition or vanity could be seen as the primary motive?
Sure, we added beauty in song and shared meals and garden plantings.Would this be enough to satisfy the gods? I don't know.
But there
is one circumstance worth noting: the time a sudden job lost and job
gained saved a baby’s life. The tally
may be 1 out of 8 for something of lasting value, still, I believe, we’ve got one on
Sisyphus.
