In ancient Greek myth, Sisyphus is cursed to roll a boulder up to the top of a mountain only to have that boulder roll all the way back down to the bottom. He is to keep doing this for all of eternity. This seems to be a pretty hopeless endeavor, and if there were only one mountain, it definitely would be. But let us imagine a slight change to this story. What if instead of one solitary mountain Sisyphus instead had the opportunity to roll his boulder up to the top of a whole range of mountains, each taller than the last? At first glance, this just seems worse. One mountain is bad enough. Why should he bother trying to climb a whole series of mountains, especially if they seem to just be getting taller and taller? Besides, this first mountain Sisyphus knows. His rolling boulder and his well worn feet have beaten a familiar path out of this first mountain. Rolling the boulder isn't exactly fun but he knows what he's doing. Going on to a second, higher mountain would force him to confront a whole new set of challenges. And what would be the point? This mountain, that mountain, what difference does it make? Our lives are very much like that of Sisyphus. We try to make things better for ourselves and those we love. We plan and strategize and we push that boulder up the mountain and then a breakup or a layoff or a house fire or a serious illness like cancer comes and knocks our boulder all the way back down the mountain. At that moment of crisis, we can choose to fall back down the way we came, or we can have our boulder fall forward down the other side of the mountain. And once we are back at the bottom, we can choose to do what we've always done and climb the same mountain and hope that this time we will be able to keep our boulder up at the top for a little longer, or we can choose to climb the next mountain in the range. When we get to the top of the next mountain, something will come along to knock our boulder down again. There is no level of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, or financial attainment that we can achieve in this life that will make us immune from the destabilizing effects of personal tragedy. If we are at the top of the mountain, something will come along to knock our boulder back down the mountain. But if we move from mountain to mountain, not only are the peaks of each successive mountain higher than ever, but so are the bases. If you were to stand Mount Everest side by side with Mauna Kea in Hawaii, Mauna Kea would actually be taller from base to peak. But two thirds of Mauna Kea is actually underwater, whereas Mount Everest is sitting on top of the world's highest mountain range. In fact, the base camp of Mount Everest is actually at a higher elevation than the peak of Mauna Kea. If we climb enough mountains, then starting back at the bottom will eventually be higher than the top of that very first mountain we began climbing. It may seem cruel that we must always be rolling boulders up the mountain but never getting to stay at the top for very long, but we are climbers. That's what we do. It's what we were made for. As it says in the Declaration of Independence, we are given the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Happiness isn't always guaranteed, but no one can ever take from us the right to pursue happiness. We are stuck with the boulder of a fallen, imperfect world filled with fallen, imperfect people, and that boulder will always try to roll down the moment we try to let go, but no one can stop us from starting over and trying to climb once more. I know that if we embrace this struggle and always seek out the next highest mountain to climb, we will always be able to climb a little bit higher, and get a little bit closer to perfection, until even our lowest lows are far higher than our highest highs used to be.
