Monotony

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 the Greek Mythology is real, poor Sisyphus is currently rolling the boulder as you read this. Historians and philosophers alike have taken inspiration from this myth for centuries and have compared it to tasks that are repetitive, tedious and seemingly never ending. In fact, the word “Sisyphean” is used to describe such tasks in everyday life.

Monotony is toxic, especially with respect to the repetitive lives most of us live on a daily basis. Waking up, sticking to the schedule throughout the day, and planning for weekend leisure activities seems more repetitive than you think, to me at least. Even in the bigger picture, spending time to earn money (or expanding your skill set required to make more money, which eventually leads to earning) and using the same money to enjoy future-time is ‘sisyphean’ on many levels. Whether you like it or not, or even have given a thought, society, along with a touch of capitalism has sewn our lives tight into that damn boulder.

Lately, I have come to a realization that monotony fuels society and without which, we’d be in chaos. Now, whether that’s good or bad, I don’t know. Whether we evolved along with monotony or adopted it after settling down as a society, I don’t know either. The way I visualized this was to picture a non-sisyphean world without order. What would I do if I woke up in a world where I don’t have to attend classes, or go to work or do what I do on a daily basis? After ticking off my wishlist, I’d feel pretty bored and feel that there’s no fun even in the supposed-to-be-fun activities. Maybe living in a structured society with repetition is what makes weekends worth waiting for. The “I deserved this break!” comes after “I can’t take this anymore!”. Anyway, the point is, Sisyphus can be assured that he isn’t the only one who is subjected to such torture, except that some of us get a break and he doesn’t.

While I have dissed monotony enough, I have learnt to appreciate it as well! Some sisyphean tasks have beauty in them or give a pleasant feeling, like drinking coffee at almost the same time everyday or waves crashing onto the shore or even the rhythm in music (which is just sound waves synchronized to please your brain). The sun has been rising everyday for the past 4.5 billion years and humans have been recording it since the past tens of thousands of years. But watching the same sun rise and set is something I find refreshingly new, along with many others who agree with me.

I would’ve loved to analogize monotony with a coin of 2 faces but it’s clearly not. We don’t have the choice of flipping it and expecting the outcome. I’d say monotony is like salt; necessary, but shouldn’t add too much and if added in excess, drink water.

So, whether you embrace monotony or try to break free from it, remember to take a break from the boulder rolling every now and then!

~ Sameer