Le Quatrième Pentamètre

Sisyphus

Sisyphus, and I began to imagine him dragging here in the mountains of Athens, the weight of life on his back, again and again, with submissiveness, with modesty that not common among humans.

Camus told us that Sisyphus was punished by the gods for such a life, and even asked us - in transcendence - to imagine Sisyphus as a happy person, one who managed to find the meaning of life even within the limited and suffering life frame to which he was thrown without any possibility of being saved and without any mental expectation of being saved. 

But why did Camus seek to use this story in which man is punished by the gods for a life full of suffering? Why did he need the great gods to whom Sisyphus stands in painful cuts all over his body as he carried the burden of life with an inner smile that was crucial never to surrender? Isn't this experience common among all human beings even without the great gods?

Camus is well aware of the absence of the gods in the minds of his readers, who cannot take comfort in the punishment that comes from above. They don't have the thrill to bear that, as suffering that has a mystical meaning, as a reference from the supreme. Therefore, it seems that Camus asked his God-forsaken readers — a "nearly religious" reference — to face the challenges of existence. He would probably call it another name - 'live the absurd', and if he met Kierkegaard abruptly - he would probably be upset that he had chosen Abraham to be the 'knight of faith',  the great expert of absurdity!

Camus knew how difficult life is for humans, and sought to produce an inner belief, devoid of gods, optimistic and sensitive vision, to those unable to bear life as they are and thats why he needed Sisyphus' gods - to remind his readers - that it was a life mission. Not everyone is capable of embracing the absurdity of meeting him.

From here - I want to express you here today, a thought that does not ׳smile׳ that much, when in my mind it is common in us, and even hides in Impressive tricks.

I would like to say - that within the minds of the patients, the therapists .. .everyone - there is a non-based Enclave premise - "That life is supposed to be happy and good" when all the evidence in existence - repeatedly proving that the opposite is true.

The therapists like the patients - are far from the recognition of the absurd. I would like to say that Sisyphus knew that it was not a punishment from the gods - but rather - these are life just as they are! 

A long journey of nonstop coping. Forced hug with anxiety. Blind walk in the storm.

But unlike us - who find it difficult to bear life as it is - Sisyphus embraced the absurdity well. This thought is unbearable for us humans. We must protect ourselves from such terror. 

That is why humans sometimes unconsciously form the imaginary expectations of the "format of life" in order to live with an optimistic perception that life would be better one day. They try to control a little bit of rodent anxiety.

This smiling thought, over time, becomes the most suffering thought of humans. Because they chasing an imaginary goal that can never be achieved and especially because in this lifetime it's so easy to see how the other is happier.

It is not life itself that we find difficult to bear, but the thought that there is another life that we never reach.

In the treatment room, we meet many people who seek a different life. They ask for a different "format of life" than their own lives.  They ask for a miracle pill for a disease that they feel deep in their soul because it destroys their being in the world, and express their courage, their efforts, their wars in order to get to the best place. 

But are we, the therapists - capable of touching the absurd?

Do we have the modesty in our minds about - 'what is possible'? 

Do we devote ourselves to the pleasant wishes of our patients because we do not have the capacity to carry life ourselves as they are?

so ... what can be done?

 It seems to me that the world of psychology must study the highest quality in existence, which today is not taught anywhere, even here in ancient Greece - Plato and Aristotle sought to tattoo it into the souls of human beings. The quality is of course - 'modesty'.