“One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” – Albert Camus

Recently, I went back to “The Myth of Sisyphus”, the book I never really fully understood while I first read it as an inexperienced kid.

This time i went down the rabbit hole and came back with something completely different.

Sisyphus’ story isn’t about endure the hardship life throws at you and “stay positive”, nor it is about “finding joy in hardship”.

It revolves around far more brutal question:

What keeps a man going when the illusion is gone?

In the original myth, the gods don’t just punish Sisyphus with endless labor, they punish him with lucidity.

• He knows the rock will fall
• He knows there is no pay off
• There is no higher meaning coming to rescue

This is suffering after understanding – not suffering caused by ignorance.

Understanding what?

That life itself has no instrinc meaning.

Life is like a never ending fractal – no matter how deep you go, there is always another layer. If you are waiting for the ultimate meaning to come, you will wait forever.

It’s like one day you wake up, you realize:

• We all will die
• The society is a man-made concept
• The company you work at will survive without you
• Your partner probably only loves you partly for what you provide

So what’s left to pursue? What’s motivating you to keep working, striving, pretending there is a better tomorrow?

This sounds discouraging, i know.

And here Albert Camus gives the answer.

He didn’t say “Stay positive” or “Be happy anyway”. It’s something much stronger: the refusal to surrender one’s inner sovereignty.

“The struggle itself is enough to fill a man’s heart.” – Albert Camus

When there is nothing else granted in life, one should pick his own meaning, lives by it and sticks to it even aware it leads to nowhere.

Sisyphus is happy not because he thinks there’s a better tomorrow, but because he doesn’t lie to himself.