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| Photo by the Author |
As a brand new year greets us with hope and a fresh start, newfangled anxieties and challenges also await us—a boulder sitting at the bottom of the hill, beckoning us to carry its weight. Like Sisyphus, perhaps it is there as punishment... or perhaps we are just bound to accept the reality and absurdity of life.
Have you heard of the phrase
"One must imagine Sisyphus happy"?
Sisyphus—who—was punished to push a boulder
Tirelessly, no-ending, uphill, and then again.
Can we imagine him truly happy?
Burdened with relentless hard work with no fruit
Eternal suffering without rest
Doing the same thing over and over again
And yet somehow I crave to be in Sisyphus's place
No worries, no pressure, no fear
For him, it's just another day to go by
No different than what will of tomorrow or was of yesterday
Every day Sisyphus readies himself for his task
Without dread of failure or further consequence
Every breath is a breath of relief
He'll fail, and that's okay.
Lucky as he seems, we're all Sisyphus alike, aren't we?
Plagued with our own boulders
Although varies day by day
On some as small as gravel, on some bigger than ourselves.
Every day we face this weight
Knowing we have no choice but to push
To try again and see what tomorrow brings
Even if it's more suffering—or less.
Just like how another year has come
Here arrives another boulder for us to face
And with all these absurdities
I hope one can also imagine themself happy.
