During my younger years as a middle school and elementary school student, and extending into my years as a young adult in high school, I often found myself pondering.
These inquiries that I subjected myself to did not have to be about anything in particular, oftentimes it was not, but I found myself thinking. Invariably, this has been a trend for myself since those days, but this time a little different, a little more focused, and a little more broad at the same time.
On this go-around, I found myself thinking about Sisyphus. As anybody who has talked to me within the last couple of weeks has known, I am obsessed with Camus’ interpretation of Sisyphus and what it means to live and be happy. Camus makes the argument that doing an incompleteable task, something that is futile, should make me happy, as he writes during the last chapter of his work, “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart,” when speaking about Sisyphus.
All of this is interesting on its own but paired with Camus’ other statements within the book itself, it can be extrapolated that Camus makes the argument that it is worth living for the sake of living, not for oneself or not even for others, but living so that you can continue living. On a personal level, this thought had never occurred to me, but now that I think about it, the more I like the idea.
Contrary to what I have heard from my professors about his other works, “The Myth of Sisyphus” is actually one of Camus’ more uplifting books, but I cannot speak to these as I have not read them yet. This will probably be the last time that I talk about this book in any sort of detail, as I know people are tired of me talking about it.
