Today’s guest post comes from Clyde.
Sisyphus was a man in Greek mythology assigned the punishment of rolling an immense boulder to the top of a steep hill. At once it rolled back to the bottom, from where he had to push it back up, only to see it roll down again. Endlessly, eternally, up and then down the hill. It is one of my favorite images from mythology.
Who has not felt like Sisyphus?
We tend to think of Sisyphean tasks as onerous. But not necessarily. An example for me was sermon-writing. When I was a pastor, I had a weekly process I followed, which led me through a seven-day cycle of inspiration, creativity, and soul-searching. Struggle, too, but that made the climb meaningful. I am about to give my last sermon, or maybe I gave it already, depending on two factors out of my control. Either way it was a good climb which I did about 700 times, counting all special services as well as Sundays. I have a friend who has done it over 3400 times, as I estimate it.
School teaching was another example for me. I would spent a year pushing the boulder up the hill, that is, getting my students to where they should be at the end of the year. Three months later I would come back into the classroom to meet the rock at the bottom of the hill. Not that I am complaining about that. It was a joyous and rewarding thing to get them to the end of the year, with many a struggle along the way. Life comes in many cycles, and that was one of the best in my life. Until, with my low threshold of boredom, I had done it just too many times. Twenty years ago I met a strong, vibrant, and life-filled woman who pushed that rock up the hill 54 times, claiming, and I believe her, to have loved every trip up the hill. She did it exactly twice as many times as I did.
Why had I burned out on a nine-month climb and I did not on a seven-day climb? Hmm?
Life is full of the unappealing hill climbs, such as housework. You clean and it gets dirty again. My own particular bane is making beds.
At this age I have discovered that my primary Sisyphean tasks have shrunk from nine months or seven days to 24 hours. Such is aging; tasks get more personal and come in shorter spans of effort. Also, now there seem to be a few boulders to push up each day, such as pain-management, keeping the filtered water bottle filled, following this blog, and forgiving myself for stupid mistakes.
How would you be punished or rewarded in a Greek myth? For what?
Trail Baboon 
Brilliant as usual, Clyde. Husband says it is Prometheus or Sisyphus for him. Clinical paperwork is truly a task for Sisyphus. He says he views it as Camus did, as a task you just have to learn to love. With my tendency to never leave well enough alone, I ‘m afraid you can just call me Pandora.
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Good morning. Very good blog entry and illustration, Clyde. I can certainly relate to the way you can cast yourself as doing the work of Sisyphus. I am not very familiar with Greek myths expect for some of the common references to them that come up all the time. I had to do a little research to come up with one I could relate to which is Morpheus.
Morpheus could take on many forms and was the shaper of dreams. I have been dreaming of a better world for most of my life. I keep hoping I can transform myself into a person who can play a role in creating a better world. I will not let go of my dream and continue to hope that it will come true. I see some signs that my dream could come true, but I am afraid I also see signs that my dream could turn into a night mare.
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Morning. Great topic, Clyde!
I have a young friend who thinks the Iliad is one of the best books ever written. I think it makes the gods look really wishy-washy. So I’m sure I would be punished for not taking the gods seriously enough.
But I know my punishment… you mentioned it already… housework. Nothing more tedious, unfulfilling and neverending w/ a teenager in the house!
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I always preferred the Odyssey (which I read for the first time at age 12) to the Iliad. It has a far more interesting–almost modern–hero, exciting adventures and, at long last, a happy ending. Plus, it features one of my favorite goddesses, Athena, in a critical role. However, either is better than the Aeneid, parts of which I had to memorize/recite for high school Latin class, and I just want to forget about Joyce’s “Ulysses.”
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Ha ha! During my first summer vacation of college I made a list of books that I wanted to read. I put “Ulysses” on that list. Over the years, I managed to purchase 3 different editions; because I hadn’t read it, maybe I didn’t remember that I owned it. After many, many years, I finally just gave up — never could get past the first 25 pages. I eventually gave all 3 editions to the library!
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…yes I said yes …
(to not being able to finish Ulysses by JJ)
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I had a graduate seminar on the book. Awful book, dull, stupid. Brilliantly written. Every chapter is based on a different myth. Every chapter focuses on a different aspect of classical rhetoric.
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Looking outside today, my punishment would be to live on the island of Aeolus (god of the winds) so I would have to either not bike or bike in winds like this. That would be my punishment for talking too much.
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In my role as Morpheus I can always dream that the winds will be in my favor. In your role as Sisyphus I think you have to face the winds and do your best to go against them, Clyde. I’m hoping I have some of Sisyphus in me as well as Morpheus. I will try to avoid taking on the role Pandora, as Rene has mentioned, but I’m afraid I might have some of that in me as well.
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Rise and define your burden Baboons!
Paperwork at work is one of my rocks, as well as the paperwork related to certain credentials I must maintain. Infinitely there, infinitely frustrating, infinitely infinite.
Rock on!
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I think most psychotherapists are children of Pandora. Think of all the things we let out the box, things that can’t or should get put back in.
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that should be “shouldn’t get put back in.” I have to stop typing without my glasses.
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But of course without your glasses, you don’t have to SEE what is in the box. THen you can simply SLAM that lid.
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Morning!
I can think of several forms of punishment; the field with the one row missing or skipping– right next to a public road and never being able to fill in that row.
Or else it’s a dark spot on stage right down center. And never enough lights to fill in the hole.
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My theatrical Ancient Greek punishment has always been that of Penelope, making and unmaking the same costume over and over and over……..
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Like.
In a testosterone-driven mythology, there are not many really heroic women, but she is one.
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A reward for Dale: he tells me Gus us graduating. If graduation from St.Olaf is like graduation at Luther, he is having a busy month. So his reward would be a few guest blogs on hand.
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My son and his wife are enjoying a reward that can only come from mythology. Their dog, rescued two years ago off the streets of San Diego has become a self-deoderizing dog. Almost every day that he is home alone, he takes one dryer sheet, puts it on the living room floor and rolls on it.He smells very nice when they get home.
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Wow! There are people I know that I wish would do that! 🙂
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Clyde, I can’t believe he takes just one dryer sheet. You sure he doesn’t grab a bunch? I know that’s what my dog would do if he did this sort of thin.
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Nate says it’s always one. He has been in love with the sheets for awhile. They have seen him stick his tongue in the box and have one stick to it to pull it out.
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Very unusual dog. My dogs have always favored dead skunks or dead fish for rolling in; I would have much preferred dryer sheets.
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Thanks for the warm welcome back you guys. Our household has been busy, busy, busy with the newly minted teenager and soon-to-be-90 aged aunt needing a bit more involvement from me in their lives. I remind myself it is good to useful…..
From yesterday-Robin, if you see someone with a Ravelry badge that says madislandgirl, that will be me at the Shepherd’s Harvest-possibly also wearing my red lace shawl (I finally have something to wear to Shepherd’s Harvest, will wonders never cease). And Lisa, I envy you singing the Rutter Gloria. Did that as a student at Luther, what a glorious piece that is.
Congratulations to one and all on graduations and anniversaries, both fine accomplishments achieved only through dedication and perserverance!
I sometimes think my Ancient Greek punishment is to remember too much, too clearly-not sure which myth that might be. As someone who works with all sorts of threads and webs, I never squish spiders, ever mindful of Arachne.
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Surely it’s Nemesis that’s responsible for visiting all the aches and pains on this old body as my just deserts for the abuse I heaped on it when I was younger and felt invincible. Sigh.
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I knew a farmer who used to get rid of his used field machinery and other large trash by quietly shoving it over a hill into a deep little gully on his neighbor’s land, just across the property line. The neighbor was a lazy fellow who never got around his land much, so he was unaware of this. Then one day the neighbor sold his land to his neighbor, my farmer friend. My friend never said anything, but he was amused by the fact that, “I bought all my garbage back.”
I’ve learned that this is the way it works. All the mistakes–things we should not have done but did, things we should have done but didn’t–are garbage that will come back to those of us who live long enough. I don’t know which classical god arranges that, but he’s got a long memory.
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🙂
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Wasn’t the god Goesaroundcomesaround in the old mythology books?
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You’re thinking of a different holy text. It was a TV show called “My Name is Earl.”
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By the way — if you haven’t checked out the end of yesterday’s entry, you should. It was an amazing late songfest!
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Who knew there were that many fishing songs!
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I used to know one that would have to carry a XXX warning. If memory serves, it was something about a girlfriend and leeches.
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Wouldn’t it be terrible to be Cassandra? I somtimes feel like her when I talk to parents about their children’s needs and problems.
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Had to look her up – yes it would!
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Or just try warning the nonbelievers that they should worry about climate change.
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Cassandra is a great modern metaphor, is she not.
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I can see my punishment in the near future – my mother needs to move to a new apartment and the goal is to get her moved by next spring.
You would think that it wouldn’t be that big of a deal, after all, how much stuff can you have in a small apartment? The answer is enough to give me a huge feeling of dread, a big headache, and despair. She is a at least borderline hoarder and definitely a packrat.
Several of you have mentioned papers/paperwork as your punishment – much of her clutter is papers; she’s into genealogy and also firmly believes that she has to keep certain papers for an incredibly long time. How to sort that out? I get a headache just thinking about it.
The first task is to clean out the garage – she, of course, doesn’t have a car in it (doesn’t own a car), but it is jam-packed full of stuff. If I can get that emptied without either of us killing the other, then my “reward” will be to move onto the storage locker and the apartment. Can’t wait.
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As someone battling her own personal paperwork monster (and into genealogy), I am going to suggest that the scanner is your friend. I’ve downloaded a free bit of genealogy software and am loving the idea of all that paper that is going to deteriorate anyway being digitized and filed under the correct person’s heading in the software. Added bonus, when I find a juicy bit to send on to my cousin in Seattle, click-click and it is emailed right to her.
As to “official” paper, if you can find an authoritative source that says you need only keep x number of years worth of whatever, then maybe she will be ok the rest being consigned to the shredder.
Good luck!
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thanks for the suggestion, madislandgirl. i know she has some genealogy software,but last time I was there neither of us could access any of the files. Something got screwed up after somebody “fixed” her computer. I’m hoping she can regain access to those files, otherwise, she will never trust the digital format again!
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Who is that on your gravatar?
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I don’t see an offical gravatar on Edith’s post, so I am guessing you are asking me.
That is my great-grandmother (the only member of that generation I actually knew), fondly known as Tillie. She was a pistol and I hope to write a guest blog about her someday.
You will appreciate the fact that she spoke in favor of the church adopting English for services, as otherwise, they were going to lose their young people. I don’t know when this was, but given that she died in the late 60s, I know it had to be before it was common for women to speak out on church policy (I shall have to consult my sainted aunts on this one).
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Ectopic post. Thanks for tracking my question. Yes, do write about her. I belong to a church in St. Peter that split off to use English services. Several churches around here have the word English in their title for that reason, but ours does not.
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Some days I feel a little like Narcissus…looking at myself in reflection and not paying attention to anyone else. Spending so much time saying, “see – look how fabulous I am!” that I lose sight of the greater world…but you see, today I am fabulous – I am the magical music teacher who brings Leonard Bernstein to 2nd graders… 😛
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Lucky second graders.
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nardo!!!
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I have a soft spot for Anybodys. Such good music in West Side Story – “America,” “Officer Krupke,” the Jets song…probably need to watch the whole thing again before I return the DVD to the library. Maybe more than once.
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it was on the other night and 3 different kids came in at different times and recognized it in the first 10 seconds of their exposure. i did something right
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I think I have a bit of Janus… This from Wiki:
In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Janus is the god of beginnings and transitions,[1] thence also of gates, doors, doorways, endings and time. He is usually a two-faced god since he looks to the future and the past. The Romans dedicated the month of January to Janus.
It seems I am always at the gateway of some new undertaking – have a lot of energy for beginnings, which then fades. And besides the looking at future and past, I can usually see both sides of any issue – sometimes drives me nuts (and those around me) as I try to make decisions and choices.
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Someone with more computer savvy than I have can tell you this for sure, but I believe backing up on a flashdrive could be your friend here.
My big plan is to burn a disk for my dad once I am done-but there are some things I am finding that I am not sure my mom will be happy about. I would bet good money SHE knows about them, but the fact that I know could cause distress :).
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Look into cloud storage too. You can get 2G free on many. I do Mozy. It uploads my word processing and spreadsheet files every day. DropBox does too I believe. Three of my son’s techie work mates use carbonite for their mother’s computers as a pay service because it is very simple and not costly. But I have only looked at Mozy. Love it. Started using it when I was working on the novel. I have the novel on Mozy, on three flash sticks in three different physical locations. Amazing how little storage space it takes for 350 pages of text.
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I’m enjoying the novel very much, Clyde.
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Thanks, Steve.
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i need to finish my pat conroy for the book club . then you are on deck. looking forward to it.
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Sounds intriguing, mig, family secrets fascinate me.
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I’m guessing this comment is for me and the problem with my mother’s papers…my mom MAY have backed up her genealogy files on a flash drive and then forgot she did so. She’s fairly computer savvy for an 86-year old. I’m going to keep these tips in mind for the next time I see her, thanks.
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Good for her. We’re buying my mom a new computer for her 86th birthday next week. A combo ‘Mothers Day / Birthday Present’.
It’s sort of interesting; my Dad wants nothing to do with computers. Never used one, never wanted to use one, never tried to use one. Although Mom calls him in to look at the screen once in a while to read something she can’t.
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My daughter is at our house feeling she says like a million bucks. We are at her house until the kids get off the bus.
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I can almost feel your daughter’s glow, Clyde, ad well deserved high.
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ach, that should be, a well deserved high.
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All 3 donors have gone home doing well. All three recipients are doing well, but they stay in Rochester for one month. Now they wait to see how much their body rejects the alien tissue.
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congrats to her and to you and sandy. nice things in the world are too few and far between.
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Now THAT is great news, Clyde.
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my greek ditty would be the labyrinth for sure. i used to have dreams of the labinryth before i knew what it was. going like hell with no vision of ever coming out is what my life has been for the last 50+ years and there is no end in sight for the near future. that deadelus kicked my ass when he plotted to plant that little joke on all us ready fire aim guys. i will be back soon but first i have to get around this corner to see what is in store for me… but maybe i should have finished that up before i left…oh well i’ll just be right back………….
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Reminds me of Joel when he was two. I always thought he was coming back to finish whatever, so I didn’t make him clean it up. I was a slooowww learner.
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leave it there long enough and he would have ill bet.
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Almost 40 years ago I taught a HS mythology course. It was fun. I gave the kids all kinds of creativity assignments. Also some fun analytical assignments. An excellent way to teach reading skills. I had a student who every time we read a new myth would tell it in his own words.I doubt students ever again laughed that hard in my class. They wrote myths, designed logos using mythic characters, wrote poems, did posters, had festivals. About a dozen kids did a project where for one week they had to do daring but not improper things in public, like dancing down the hall during passing time. They said it was almost life-changing to do. (This came from the Bacchus/Dionysus myth and festival.) We looked at myths in modern American terms, not in the Mythbusters sense. But looking for common stories that told current “truth.” They were not all the academic students, but they really got into it.
A colleague complained she never got to teach the courses kids liked, so the principal gave her that course. Three weeks into the semester, she went on a harangue about me in the class. She told the principal she had to have new materials to teach the class correctly. She got Edith Hamilton’s “The Roman Way” and assigned that. It was an English class, not a history class. She did this three other times, got the principal to give her one of my classes. Is that not almost a mythic tale right there.
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Unfortunately, she (or her Danish clone) was the history teacher I had in high school. Becoming interested in history was a struggle for me; found it so boring.
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To teach that class the way you taught it, Clyde, (I believe) the teacher would have to be curious enough to delve into the material, and love it – at least LIKE it; that is what was contagious, made the students curious too. I’d love to take this course from someone like you.
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My last summer term in undergraduate school I took a brilliantly taught mythology course. It was the basis of several things I taught.
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it is amazing that not only are there people who dont understand that it is the teacher not the material but that their are administrators who dont understand that there are people who dont understand.
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Today’s punishment: not only did my Lemon Thyme plants not make it through the winter, but when I went to the plant sale today, planning to replace them, I was greeted by a sign in the lemon thyme spot: Crop Failure! That’s what I get for loving that herb so much!
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Edith, have faith. I’ll find a lemon thyme for you at the St. Paul’s Farmers’ Market. We have a couple of most wonderful herb growers.
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Wow, thanks, PJ! Don’t worry if you can’t fine one – I’ll scout around. Hard to have too much of that.
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Wow, I’ll have to check and see if mine made it. I used to have tons – if it did you can have some, Edith.
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I had 2 or 3 plants but they were in an area that was too low-lying. With all the freezing and thawing that went on this past winter, they spent too much time submerged in water or ice. I guess that wasn’t very good for them. I make lemon-thyme biscuits that are very good and it’s good for other things, too – l’ll take whatever you want to give me! The combination of the lemon flavor with thyme is unbeatable.
And – thanks!
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