Sisyphus

Okay, prepare yourself to go places today that you would never expect to go with me ... off into mythology.  In the last couple of weeks I had someone tell me they felt like the guy who pushed the rock up the hill every day.  This guy was Sisyphus.  Yes, I had to look it up.  Sisyphus was sentenced by the gods to push a rock up a mountain all day, only to have the rock roll back down the mountain at night.  Then he would start over again the next day.  The article I read also talked about this being a metaphor for working in futile jobs in factories and offices.  Hum, there is something to think about.

As I rolled (no pun intended) this idea around in my head, I had several thoughts.  First, I understand that it could feel like any of us were pushing a rock uphill all day long.  The person I work most closely with, Carolyn, would tell you that just this week I melted down about having to repeat the same thing over and over.  The context was something we had dealt with in the past, I had counted as finished, and the issue was coming up AGAIN.  My rock.  As I think about this in hindsight, without the emotion of the moment, I realize that if we only had to do things one time, we would quickly come to a point when we were no longer necessary.  I never want that time to come.

The second thing that I think about is the idea of "futile jobs in factories and offices."  I just can't make sense of this.  I have been in and out of factories and distribution facilities for the better part of my adult life, and without doubt, I have not seen any jobs I consider to be futile.  I have seen jobs that I wouldn't want to do, but I've always been amazed that the people doing the jobs were happy and felt as though they added value to the overall enterprise.  After all, isn't that what we are all looking for?  I know that at the end of the day when I am asked how my day went, I want to be able to say that I had a good day, and that I actually accomplished something that helped the company. The other important thing is that on the day that I help my company, I also typically help myself because I personally am seen as having value.

A final thought in all of this is around the rock itself.  If you can embrace the idea of pushing a rock uphill all day, I might ask you to consider whether the rock is always the same.  I think that the day the person talked to me about this, their rock had been pretty big for several days.  But in my case, that isn't always true.  There are days the rock is smaller or lighter, and there are even days when the mountain is not as steep.  There are days when I go home from work and don't feel that I accomplished much at all and there are days that I feel like I got a lot done.  That is just the way that it works for me.  When I worked in retail, one of the people I worked for used to ask at the end of the day if we served more customers or angered more that day.  How big was the rock?

I know that it is different for all of us, but I always think about the fact that I get to fight another day. I got through even the worst days and get to play again.  This is a pretty big deal for me.  There are times that I get home and all Sara wants to do is to stay away from me for a while, but, I get to start over again the next day. Each day starts fresh as I have made no mistakes and all that lays in front of me is what the day will bring.  I know that I will deal with the 'rock' for the day, but I still have the potential for a good day.

Ok, just to finish today, this was a good week.  I finally got to my lumber supplier and picked up some alder hardwood and matching sheet goods.  This will let me start on a roll top desk that I have been wanting to build for my office at the Toybox and maybe a set of shelves that will go in Andrew's room in the basement.  I'm kind of excited as I have spent almost no time at the Toybox in the last several weeks.  This is totally unacceptable and needs to be rectified NOW.

Have a great weekend.