Just read this wonderful thought provoking essay written by a French writer- Albert Camus way back in 1942. I must say I am deeply touched by the tone! Here goes my selected favorite part of the insights provided by Camus. Hopefully this will give you a food for thought too..
The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.
At the very end of his long effort measured by skyless space and time without depth, the purpose is achieved. Then Sisyphus watches the stone rush down in a few moments toward tlower world whence he will have to push it up again toward the summit. He goes back down to the plain. It is during that return, that pause, that Sisyphus interests me. A face that toils so close to stones is already stone itself! I see that man going back down with a heavy yet measured step toward the torment of which he will never know the end. That hour like a breathing-space which returns as surely as his suffering, that is the hour of consciousness. At each of those moments when he leaves the heights and gradually sinks toward the lairs of the gods, he is superior to his fate. He is stronger than his rock. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
It took me a moment to relate myself with the sisyphus. It intrigues me to realize how I feel for that guy & induces me to rethink my way of life..my pursuit of happiness.
