Monotony
Original post date: April 24, 2023
Sisyphus, the King of Ephyra, was sentenced to death by Zeus for snitching on him. With his wit and arrogance he cheated death not once, but twice, and earned the well-known fury of the God-King of the Greek Pantheon. To ensure he paid well for his insubordination, he was told to roll a boulder from the foothill to the top of Mount Tartarus in the Underworld. Seemingly easy for a guy who cheated death, right? The trickery was that the boulder was enchanted to roll back down every time he reached the top, only for him to restart it all over again. If anything about Greek mythology is real, poor Sisyphus is currently rolling that boulder as you read this. Historians and philosophers have taken inspiration from this myth for centuries, comparing it to tasks that are repetitive, tedious, and seemingly never-ending. The word "Sisyphean" is used to describe exactly such tasks in everyday life.
Monotony is toxic, especially with respect to the repetitive lives most of us live daily. Waking up, sticking to a schedule, planning weekend leisure activities: it all feels more repetitive than it seems, to me at least. Even in the bigger picture, spending time to earn money and using that same money to enjoy future time is Sisyphean on many levels. Whether you have thought about it or not, society, with a touch of capitalism, has sewn our lives tight into that boulder.
Lately I have come to the realisation that monotony fuels society, and without it we would be in chaos. Whether that is good or bad, I do not know. Whether we evolved alongside monotony or adopted it after settling into organized society, I do not know either. The way I visualised this was to picture a non-Sisyphean world without order. What would I do if I woke up with no classes to attend, no work to go to, no daily obligations at all? After ticking off my wishlist, I would feel bored. Even the supposedly fun things would lose their pull. Maybe living in a structured society with repetition is exactly what makes weekends worth waiting for. The "I deserved this break" comes after "I cannot take this anymore." Sisyphus can at least be assured he is not the only one subjected to such a cycle. Some of us just get a break and he does not.
While I have dissed monotony enough, I have also learnt to appreciate it. Some Sisyphean tasks carry real beauty: drinking coffee at roughly the same time every day, waves crashing onto the shore, the rhythm in music which is really just sound waves synchronised to please your brain. The sun has been rising for 4.5 billion years and humans have been recording it for tens of thousands. Yet watching the same sun rise and set still feels refreshingly new. I find that, and I know I am not alone.
I would have loved to frame monotony as a coin with two faces, but it clearly is not. We do not get to flip it and choose the outcome. Monotony is more like salt: necessary, but best not added in excess, and if it is, drink water.
So, whether you embrace monotony or try to break free from it, remember to step away from the boulder every now and then.
Originally posted on thedopplerdude.blogspot.com.