Thoughts on the Absurd Hero
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/00/pwillen1/lit/msysip.htm
All is well?
posted by Esteban at 2:05 PM
sexta-feira, dezembro 09, 2005
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/00/pwillen1/lit/msysip.htm
All is well?
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10 Comments:
"The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
Ah, but to toil for that which transcends mere struggle...that's joy. Give me St. Peter beaten, hanging upside down on a cross, in screams of agony any day over the "silent joy" of Sisyphus.
“but to toil for that which transcends mere struggle”
what additional quality of St. Peters toil provides the means to transcend mere struggle? And why does it produce joy?
I think you know the answer to that question.
Yes.
but i want the dicussion to go further...
Or is there any need?
I cant say i experience toil.
Well, I'm with you on that. I'm not so sure I experience toil, especially in the way the great martyrs did.
Yet, I am sure that I daily deal with a constant inner struggle to either die to Christ or have things my own way. And since life isn't just a loose confederation of singular moments but a path made of choices that work together to lead in some overall direction, I pray I'm at least on the path that leads to total abandonment for Christ. I may not be there yet, but that's not the point. The question is, where is my heart pionted?
And it rings in my ears, "What is impossible for man is possible with God."
i dont know if my heart is pointing anywhere at the moment...which is sad.
but would you say that waking up to constant inner struggle, to either die to Christ or have things your own way each day is similar to the plight of Sisyphus.
is that your daily work out to better push the rock up the hill?
I can sympathize with feeling as though your heart isn't pointed in any direction. I mean, in one sense, my heart is and it isn't at every moment.
This is why I added the quote from Matthew 19:26. The fact is, we rich boys are never going to feel as though we've escaped the grief we felt once hearing Jesus' call to give it all away. It is not easy for men like us to enter the Kingdom. We know this and it scares us shit-less.
I see your connection with Sisyphus. I think in many ways it is an appropriate one. Yet something tells me that our work is not like his. I see a Sisyphus who has been dehumanized. I liked Camus' take on the myth. I see where he's getting and I think it can be helpful. But Camus, I think, misses the core of what it means to be human.
His statement, "Thus, convinced of the wholly human origin of all that is human," is a nice abstraction, but lends little to the true plight of the blind man. What the blind man needs is not some poetic understanding of the eternity of the night, rather, he needs the Light of the World to come and give him sight. Humanity is fully realized when it is fully restored. This is the work of Christ and His Church.
You asked, "but would you say that waking up to constant inner struggle, to either die to Christ or have things your own way each day is similar to the plight of Sisyphus."
The reason I don't think it is is that I see a Sisyphus who is alone. And, according to Camus, it is his thoughts, his temperament, that humanizes him. My understanding of an aspect of the Christian faith is that we are no longer "left as orphans." Our work is never like that of Sisyphus', because we never go it alone. And, for some reason, that really does change everything.
Just let me ask:
If you're heart's not pointed anywhere, then tell me why it is that I keep seeing you pushing ahead?
i did notice Sisyphus was alone...that is a very crucial point.
i think i am pushing forward...but i have no compass to know which way. i found myself on a path...and started walking.
"In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance....
...And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not. "
When in doubt, Eliot is always helpful.
:-)
im still skeptical that living/dying for a belief or faith really alters our plight. maybe its just another way to relieve the pain of consciousness.
so many live under illusions...whose to say St Peter wasnt?
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