Packing and Unpacking and The Toil of Sisyphus

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.