Albert Camus and "The Myth of Sysiphus"

This posting is for Big Frank's brother, Dan. It will no doubt extract from his memory the image of a red international pickup trailing clouds of dust as it roars across North Dakota gravel roads on the way to some sad unpainted barn. In that red truck while Dan drives, and despite his protests, Big Frank reads aloud from Camus' "The Myth of Sysiphus".

The associative links continue. The previous post mentioned the Sysiphusian stuggle and the joy that emerges from persistence. Who better represents this than Sisyphus, the mythical absurd hero sentenced to ceaselessly roll a rock to the top of a mountain and then watch it descend. Albert Camus, 1957 Nobel Prize winner in literature, wrote “The Myth of Sysiphus and other essays” among many other literary works.

Big Frank now looks at the absurd hero, represented by Sysiphus. Camus writes, in his essay “An Absurd Reasoning”:

I don't know if this world has a meaning that trascends it. But I know that I do not know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it. What can a meaning outside my condition mean to me? I can understand only in human terms. What I touch, what resists me -- that is what I understand.

In the face of the impossibility of extracting oneself from this dilemma, there is a way. This is Sysiphus after the rock has rolled down the mountain for the zillionth time, with joy in his heart, picking it up and heading back up the mountain It is, as Camus says not important what is “the best living, but the most living.” This entails “Nothing else for the moment but indifference to the future and a desire to use up everything that is given.” And here is where the existentialist and the yogi shake hands, for Camus writes in reference to the life of quantity: “To two men living the same number of years, the world always provides the same sum of experiences. Being aware of one’s life, one's revolt, one’s freedom, and to the maximum, is living, and to the maximum.”


From the evening breeze to this hand on my shoulder. Everything has its truth. Consciousness illuminates it by paying attention to it.

Here are a few more memorable quotations from Camus:

The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind.

To be happy we must not be too concerned with others.

We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love - first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?

If there is a soul, it is a mistake to believe that it is given to us fully created. It is created here, throughout a whole life. And living is nothing else but that long and painful bringing forth.

Beware of those who say, 'I know this too well to express it'. For if they cannot do so, this is because they do not know it or because of laziness they stopped at the outer crust.

But a single truth, if it is obvious, is enough to guide an existence.

Philip Levine "It goes on"

Continuing with the associative link we are now on Philip Levine, a great American poet. He turned 80 this year. His poetry comes out of his life: close acquaintance with the hard lot of the working poor. It is also tinged with an awareness of the bleakness of life coupled with, from the larger perspective – its beauty. He captures the drudgery but puts joy into stubborn daily continuation. The lyric beauty of life sings through the mouths of the overworked and underpaid. It is a Sisyphusian struggle and the joy emerges from never stopping. Robert Frost summed up everything that he learned of life life this way: “it goes on.” Philip Levine's poetry resonates with the joy of tenancity.

From "Milkweed"

. . . the windows
went dark first with rain
and then snow, and then the days,
then the years ran together and not
one mattered more than
another, and not one mattered.

Two days ago I walked
the empty woods, bent over,
crunching through oak leaves,
asking myself questions
without answers. From somewhere
a froth of seeds drifted by touched
with gold in the last light
of a lost day, going with
the wind as they always did.

From “A Sleepless Night Analysis”
. . .
An iron day,
I think, yet it will come
dazzling, the light
rise from the belly of leaves and pour
burning from the cups
of poppies.
The mockingbird squawks
from his perch, fidgets,
and settles back. The snail, awake
for good, trembles from his shell
and sets sail for China. My hand dances
in the memory of a million vanished stars.

A man has every place to lay his head.

From “Red Dust”

. . .
I do not believe in sorrow;
it is not American.
At 8,000 feet the towns
of this blond valley smoke
like the thin pipes of the Chinese,
and I go higher where the air
is clean, thin, and the underside
of light is clearer than the light.
Above the tree line the pines
crowd below like moments of the past
and on above the snow line
the cold underside of my arm,
the half in shadow, sweats with fear
as though it lay along the edge
of revelation.

'Meet' in Poetry

Continuing our associative links, (where will this all end up?) we now go from "meetup" to the use of 'meet' in poetry. Let’s take a look at some memorable poems that use 'meet'.

From "As I Walked Out One Evening" by W.H. Auden
'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

From "I Cannot Live With You" by Emily Dickinson
So We must meet apart –
You there – I – here –
With just the Door ajar

From "Personals" by C. D. Wright’s
If this were Tennessee and across that river, Arkansas,
I'd meet you in West Memphis tonight. We could
have a big time.

From "The Two" by Philip Levine
When he gets off work at Packard, they meet
outside a diner on Grand Boulevard. He's tired,
a bit depressed, and smelling the exhaustion
on his own breath, he kisses her carefully
on her left cheek.
. . .
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that there were no
second acts in America, but he knew neither
this man nor this woman and no one else
like them

From "When A Woman Loves A Man" by David Lehman
When a woman loves a man, she wants him to meet her at the
airport in a foreign country with a jeep.
When a man loves a woman he's there. He doesn't complain that
she's two hours late
and there's nothing in the refrigerator.
. . .
When a man loves a woman, he watches her sleep, thinking:
as midnight to the moon is sleep to the beloved.

Meetup!

The associations continue. When Madam Tallien was imprisoned she had a meetup with none other that Joséphine de Beauharnais, which brings to mind the topic of this post – no, not Josephine, but meetup!

Here's a great new idea - well, at least it's new to Big Frank: http://www.meetup.com/ is a great opportunity for people who share the same interests to gather in cities all over the U.S. A friend of Big Frank’s here in Spokane turned him on to this great site. He immediately took the opportunity to put the word out that he is organizing a meetup for Spokane Webloggers: http://blog.meetup.com/412/ Spread the word! However, that particular interest group is but the tip of the iceberg of possibilities. Here is where the internet brings people together face-to-face. And it is taking off big time! Just go and examine the range of groups that have already organized and are just waiting for you to join them. The groups range from 2 to 500. The topics range from serious to silly, and if your topic of preference isn't there - well then go ahead and organize one yourself - anybody can. In one city – let’s take Denver for example, here are a few of the possibilities available right now:


Ballroom Dancing
Dune Buggy
Tarot Geeks
The Pollyanna Glad Club
Cribbage
Wine Bats, Blind Wine Tasting Colony
Random Acts of Kindness Volunteer Group
Cuddlers
Philosophy
Dog Training
Laughter Yoga
Yoga Cooperative
Punk
Female Bikers
Racquetball notifications
Rocky Mountain Scramblers
Singles Hikes and Adventures
Kabbalah Group
Metaphysics
Skeptics
Shyness & Social Anxiety
Floral
Design and Wine
Kiss Corporate GOODBYE!

Now go and look at what’s out there in your own backyard!

Revolutionary Fashion

The photo above is of Jeanne Françoise Julie Adélaïde Récamier, dressed in Neo-Grec fashion as championed by Madame Tallien - she who bathed in strawberries.

This train of associations - false dilemma to man pinned by tiger eating strawberry to strawberry, to the woman who actually did bathe with strawberries - Thérésa Tallien (usually known as Madame Tallien, and then to the fashion craze she started in Revolutionary France.

Madam Tallien lived from 1773 to 1835 and was a well-known figure during the French Revolution. She is remembered for her involvement in the Liberal cause in France, which led to her imprisonment, and threat of the guillotine. She had one of the leading salon’s of the day (not too many of those around these days). In addition she started a whole movement in fashion – Neo-Grec! You know this look – it’s the loose fitting white robe-like drapings that sort of look like what you imagine classical Greek women wore. The painting at the top of this post is an example. Anyway, she scandalized society by showing up at the Paris Opera wearing a sleeveless white dress and no underwear underneath! Talleyrand famously remarked on that: “It is not possible to exhibit oneself more sumptuously!” That is seizing the moment! And, of course she did bathe in strawberries - to good effect, it appeared.

For more info on these revolutionary fashions go to the following website – incredible number of good photos there.

http://www.blastmilk.com/decollete/revolutionary-fashion/incroyables-et-merveilleus.php

Strawberry Delight

Above is that strawberry from the story below. Where is it going - right NOW? It's entirely up to you.

To your left is THE STRAWBERRY, of the genus Fragaria. Let this represent (as your taste buds no doubt are telling you at this moment) the NOW that is waiting to be tasted. The fragrant tasty possibilities do surround you. And are as easily plucked as this fruit. Grab it - do it now.

Fragaria actually means odorous - from the perfumed flesh of this fruit. Rumor has it that it is possible to maintain your skin's radiance by bathing with the Fragaria. So next time you draw your bath water toss some strawberries in for good measure.

But above all else taste this moment in all its succulent sweetness!

A Parable - Off The Horns of a Dilemma

Here is one story that addresses the issue of the either-or dilemma with a surprising alternative choice. It comes from Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-zen Writings, collected by Paul Reps.

"A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down, to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him.

Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine. The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!"

Bifurcation, False Dichotomies or Limited Imagination?

This post is for Boo – my old buddy from Dickinson – my namesake hometown. He was the sole person to comment on the previous post on bifurcation. I would like to take that post and run a little bit with it. The dance of twos – you might say. It has much to do with how we look at that world. As a result, when we find ourselves in precarious positions – perceived dilemmas, we tend to see the outcomes in terms of I can either do this or that. Yet - does this limited (this or that) choice really encompass all the choices at your disposal?? Let’s examine this.

On one level it can be as simple as the child holding an ice ball with the only target in site being his so-called friend - to throw or not to throw? That is the dilemma? Well, what about drop it, or take it home and put it in the freezer etc. etc. On a more serious level, what if you are climbing and roped to a partner. At one point your partner slips and tumbles over the side of an abyss and starts to drag you over the edge. You find you cannot stop your decline and are faced with this dilemma – cut the rope or go over the edge. Is there any other choice, or are you caught on the proverbial horns of a dilemma? This seems much more limiting. Are there in fact other choices? How do you know? And, of course, this situation can also be viewed metaphorically, a situation that many of us find ourselves in. We are connected, in some way, to some object, some person or to some situation. We see that person or situation as taking us over the edge into some form of the abyss. However, in this extended version it seems we have entered the world of a false dilemma?

All of us, are facing, or have faced, similarlly dramatic or emotional situations in our lives where we see the choices limited to two. Of course, in reality a false dilemma involves two alternative statements that are believed to be only possible options, when in reality there are one or more other choices that have not been considered. This is also referred to as false choice, false dichotomy, black and white thinking, a falsified dilemma, either/or fallacy, and also, of course, bifurcation. As for the previous post - Big Frank stands convicted of the fallacy of bifurcation – but then again – so too do all of you!

Care to share your stories??

Two Woodpeckers

Two Woodpeckers

A cold, not quite spring morning;
one woodpecker flies onto a rock
closely followed by the other, alighting on a fence nearby.
With their backs to one another;
first the one on the fence turns and sings to lower one's back.
Then the one on the rock turns to face the other who turns around.
Now the lower one turns to sing to the other's back
And so it goes, always one singing to the other’s back.
This pivoting duet goes on for a few minutes,
and then the lower one flies onto a high tree branch;
quickly followed by the other on a lower.
Two chickadees enter right and left;
woodpeckers exit rear.

Longing

More from Parmenides - this time on longing.

"It (the moon) wanders about the earth, shining at night with borrowed light. She is always gazing earnestly toward the rays of the sun."

Then there is this from Peter and Maria Kingsley from "As Far As Longing Can Reach" from the summer 2006 edition of Parabola.

"There is no reasoning with passion and longing, although we like to deceive ourselves by believing there is. All we ever do is reason with ourselves about the form our longing will take. We reason that if we find a better job we will be content, but we never are. We reasons that if we go somewhere special we will be happy; but when we get there we start wanting to go somewhere else. we reason that if we were to sleep with the lover of our dreams we would be fulfilled. And yet even if we were to manage that, it would still not be enough.

What we sometimes refer to, so misleadingly, as "human nature" is simply the state of being pulled by the nose in a hundered different directions and ending up going nowhere very fast.

But although there is no reasoning with our passion, it has a tremendous intelligence of its own. The only trouble is that we keep interfering; keep breaking it up into tiny pieces, scattering it everywhere. Our minds always trick us into focusing on the little things we think we want - rather than on the energy of wanting itself.

If we can bear to face our longing instead of finding endless ways to keep satisfying it and trying to escape it, it begins to show us a glimpse of what lies behind the scense of this world we think we live in. It opens up a devastating perspective where everything is turned on its head: where fulfillment becomes a limitation, accomplishment turns into a trap. And it does this with an intensity that scrambles our thoughts and forces us straight into the present.

Longing is the movement and the calling of our deepest nature. It's the cry of the wolf, the power of the lion, the fluttering of all the birds inside us. And if we can find the courage to face it, it will take us back to where we belong."

Events and Reactions to Events

Well Eckhart Tolle is on the front page, as it were, so I'm going to add another quotation from his book A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose. I think a normal reaction to the book is to jump to the goal - being in the now and to quickly skip over the impediments to getting there, not that Big Frank has arrived by any means. One of the main impediments, as Tolle points out, is the Ego. This is the king of the hill, the entity that dominates our lives and that we tend most to identify with, not recognizing what a tyrant it actually is. I think what Tolle has to say about ego is in many ways that best part of his book. Here's excerpt on events and reactions to events.

"Every ego confuses opinions and viewpoints with facts. Furthermore, it cannot tell the differnce between an event and its reaction to that event. Every ego is a master of selective perception and distorted interpretation. Only through awareness -- not through thinking -- can you differentiate between fact and opinion. Only through awareness are you able to see. There is the situation and here is the anger I feel about it, and then realize there are other ways of approaching the situation, other ways of seeing it and dealing with it. Only through awareness can you see the totality of the situation or person instead of adopting one limited perspetive."

Marcus Aurelius, addressing the same topic put it this way:

"The mind is that which is roused and directed by itself. It makes of itself what it choses. It makes what is chooses of its own experiences."

And Shakespeare:

“Nothing is either bad or good, only thinking makes it so.”

And then there is Big Frank Dickinson:

"Thinking is the ego's way of making judgements; learning to see through other eyes can pierce the judgemental fog."

Big Frank Looks Around

Today was a bright sunny day in Spokane. The first marmot of the year emerged from hibernation - what surer sign of spring is there? Big Frank went out for a run with camera in hand. This was an attempt to focus on where he was - not on where he wasn't - in his head. So here is what he saw. Above is a fence, and note how the missing top rung has allowed us an unobstructed view of a lingering patch of snow: beautiful. Above top right is a ponderosa pine. This is a particularly big one, and it's inner branches, the blue of the background, the reddish-brown bark, and the general massiveness of its trunk make for a great shot.

This is ponderosa pine country and so there were lots of them around. This tree can get well over 100 feet in height and its trunks - when left to grow - get over 6 feet in diameter. Here are a few more shots of those trees that I passed along the way.

This is a massive trunk - an old tree!

The same one looking up into its tangle of branches.


The ponderosa pine, with a split trunk.

Here are some fences. This first one is a stone one with three cottonwoods in the background there waiting for their leaves.

This next one has its shadow mirroring it. Great symmetry.

And finally, coming back I glanced down and saw the grass - still sleeping, it appeared.

All Structures are Unstable

Big Frank has an excerpt from Eckhart Tolle for your contemplation. This comes from the chapter entitled "The Power of the Ego" in his book A New Earth. In it he writes of the egoic mind that most people identify falsely with self. This is an unstable and ultimately unhappy way to live.

"Whatever form it takes, the unconscious drive behind ego is to strengthen the image of who I think I am, the phantom self that came into existence when thought - great blessing as well as a great curse -- began to take over and obscured the simple yet profound joy of connectedness with Being, the Source, God. Whatever behavior the ego manifests, the hidden motivating force is always the same: the need to stand out, be special, be in control; the need for power, for attention, for more. And ,of course, the need to feel a sense of separation, that is to say, the need for opposition, enemies.

The ego always wants something from other people or situations. There is always a hidden agenda, always a sense of "not enought yet," of insufficiency and lack that needs to be filled. It uses people and situations to get what it wants, and even when it succeeds, it is never satisfied for long. Often it is thwarted in its aims, and for the most part the gap between "I want" and "what is" becomes a constant source of upset and anguish. The famous and now classic pop song, "(I Can't get No) Satisfaction," is the song of the ego. The underlying emotion that governs all the activity of the ego is fear. The fear of being nobody, the fear of nonexistence, the fear of death. All its activities are ultimately designed to eliminate this fear, but the most the ego can ever do is to cover it up temporarily with an intimate relationship, a new possession, or winning at this or that. Illusion will never satisfy you. Only the turth of who you are, if realized, will set you free."

And on that note, we will end this with a another quotation from the ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides: "It is necessary to speak and to think what is; for being is, but nothing is not. "

Perspective

Here is Philip Larkin from his poem High Windows - a great perspective to keep in mind:

This quotation comes at the end of the poem, but you can feel free to put whatever thoughts you choose before it. It works with them all. So go ahead and give it a try. First of . . . this can be done either outloud, as a kind of interior monologue, or if you prefer write it out. You might think of it as a kind of meditation on a problem, dilemma, etc. Anyway get it all out there, and then,



tack this on to the end of it:



. . . . And immediately.

Rather than words comes the thought of high windows;
The sun-comprehending glass,
And beyond it, the deep air, that shows
Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.