Sunday 7 August 2022

Rock of Sisyphus


 First they tell you 10,000 steps a day is good for you. That would take you approximately about 1 hr  and 45 mins. Then they say no good if you just saunter around admiring the view and smelling the roses.  Must do brisk walking. Then they say, just brisk walking not good enough, must do some strength resistance exercises to lessen muscle loss. Still not enough, must also do exercises that increase flexibility... stretch those muscles... work towards long, lean muscles.

So for about three days, I couldn't clear my cat litter very well. Couldn't stoop because of some stretching exercises which I either did wrongly or overly. The rock has rolled back on me.

But hey today, I find I could stoop a bit more! Yay! I have pushed the rock up a little bit.

Homer got it right, the guy who supposedly wrote about the adventures of ancient Greeks and Greek gods in his poems. Sisyphus, one of the characters, a king no less, was condemned by Zeus to push a rock up the hill for eternity -- a punishment for his wicked deeds. The moment Sisyphus managed to push it up a little, it came tumbling back and he had to push it up again. 

Don't we have to keep pushing this rock -- on a personal-- and macro level.  On the macro level, just when we have made some advances in fighting the pandemic, when the economy started to show signs of picking up -- and we have the Ukraine war -- and many other political unrests. We thought technology has come to the rescue.  Hurray for cars, aircon and of course handphones! But then there's climate change. 

I guess that's the human condition. We just have to keep pushing the rock. And oh, count our blessings.





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