How To Find Beauty In Everything? – The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus: Explained

I was getting ready to go to thisrestaurant in downtown.

I was supposed to meet some friends for lunch.

I wasexcited as I haven't seen them in such a long time.

I already was picturing how Iwould walk in and how they would wave happy to see me.

I was thinking aboutwhat we would say to each other, what would we do and so on.

One last look in the mirror, ordered a cab, took the elevator down, walked acrossthe apartment complex, waved at the driver, spent 30 minutes in the cabthinking about the upcoming lunch, paid the taxi guy, walked across the canal, walked towards the restaurant and finally opened the door.

My friends excitedlywaved at me.

We were there for about an hour, after that I exited the restaurant walked across the canal, called a cab, rode back home, walked across my apartment complex, took the elevator up, entered my apartment, spent the rest of the day doing other things while alsothinking about the lunch.

Now what does this have to do with an ancient cruelGreek king.

Let me explain In 1942 French philosopher Albert Camuspublished an essay called The Myth of Sisyphus In this essay Camus introducesthe philosophy of the absurd.

Man futile search for meaning, purpose andclarity.

He points to the absurdity of the idea that all of this willultimately lead to something He says, we build our life on the hope for tomorrow, yet tomorrow brings us closer to death and is the ultimate enemy.

People livetheir lives as if they are not aware of the certainty of death.

Once stripped ofits common romanticism, the world is a foreign, strange, and inhuman place.

True knowledge is impossible and rationality and science cannot explain the world.

Their stories ultimately end in meaningless abstractions, in metaphors This is the absurd condition and from the moment absurdity is recognized itbecomes a passion, the most harrowing of all.

The absurdity of the eternalcontradiction in humans need to understand, against the unreasonablesilence of the world forms the core of The Myth of Sisyphus In the fourthchapter of this essay Camus writes about Sisyphus.

Sisyphus was the clever albeitevil king of the ancient city-state of Corinth.

He's known for his trickeryand deceit.

He had trapped, cheated and escaped death twice, which led Zeus tosentence him to what he thought was the ultimate and cruel punishment.

Somethingmuch worse than death itself.

Sisyphus was condemned to roll a boulder up ahill in the depth of Hades, the world of death.

The boulder would ultimately rollback down and Sisyphus has to roll the boulder up the hill all over again foreternity.

Camus presents his Myth of Sisyphus as an allegory to humans searchfor meaning and the absurdity of it.

You're born, you learn to walk, you go toschool, you go to college, work at the office, get married have kids, buy a househave grandkids, one day just as you entered in some corner of the world, you quietly exit.

The world goes on, the earth still spins, the indifferencecontinues.

Most of us continue to live some version of this everyday.

Day in and day-out we live ruthlessly.

We return back to our apartments, sleep and startthe whole thing all over again, just as Sisyphus gets ready to push the boulderback up for eternity.

But yesterday when I met my friends at the restaurant Irealized something.

I met them for all of one hour, but I gotready for 15 minutes, took an elevator for one minute, the car ride was for 30 minutes, crossing the river was for five minutes, and I didthem all again when I was returning to my apartment.

I realized that hidden inplain sight was my life.

The mundane.

Yeah I get a job, ask a girlout, make a film, meet my friends those are important moments of my life.

But majority of my life is not that.

It's the mundane things that make up most ofmy time in this earth.

Things like cooking alone while my balcony is open.

Cleaning my apartment riding a bus or a taxi to get somewhere, eating deliciousfood, watching ants crawl, bicycling walking, lots and lots of walking, thequiet moments, the mundane is my life and once I began noticing the mundane, I wascaptured by its brilliance.

The mundane is beautiful beyond words.

Once yourealize this fact, you begin noticing it more and more and you are not in yourown head thinking about where you're going or what you're gonna do when youget there.

You don't think about eating while you're cooking, you simply cook.

Youdon't think about your destination while you ride, you simply enjoy the beautifulride.

Camus ends his essay like this I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again.

But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks.

He too concludes that all is well.

This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile, nor futile.

Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world.

The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart.

One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

Sisyphus is happy.

I feel alive.

I breathe in and out and I am happy.

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