“The Struggle Is Real.” — Sisyphus
Embrace it. And when able, enjoy it.
Okay. So Sisyphus never said that. We probably can imagine, however, that at some point he must have come to a similar realization.
Back in February, Umair Haque wrote a piece entitled, “How to Struggle (Well)”, providing a baseline perspective on struggle. We all struggle, he acknowledges. We will continue to struggle. We may or may not overcome our struggles, but in the face of this truth, we must ask ourselves:
When we struggle, what are we struggling for? We must always remember: though we often think so, we are never truly struggling for money, power, lovers, fame. We are struggling, in the final truth, to become ourselves — people worthy of the existential privilege of the small, vast debt of life we have been granted by destiny.
Umair Haque
Haque’s premise is, in our pursuit of becoming more, of actualizing the summation of our struggles into a conduit for providing meaning to ourselves, we must learn to struggle well. That is, similar to learning how to learn, we can learn to not only struggle, but to struggle well.
Struggling well — facing, embracing, and overcoming one’s struggle — and struggling poorly — escaping, replacing, and ignoring one’s struggle — is one of the greatest and most necessary disciplines that we must master if we are to live, prosper, and blossom.
Umair Haques
Inspired by umair haque’s commentary on struggle, and with the help of a few of history’s academic Titans, I wanted to catalogue some thoughts on the matter.
Albert Camus
Albert Camus’ famous analysis on “The Myth of Sisyphus” — and humanity’s existential struggle for meaning — flips the perspective of Sisyphus’ divine punishment into divine purpose:
I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one’s burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
Albert Camus
In this same fashion, we say in gung fu, to always strive for “Number 9,” nine being one step away from perfection. The journey doesn’t stop, so we mustn’t stop. In doing so, we continually seek excellence rather than perfection.
Viktor E. Frankl
An important theme in my writing and my works is that of purpose. I would prefer to have a meaningful and purposeful day rather than simply a productive one. Productivity, the effectiveness of productive effort, is important in our daily lives, but addressing whether or not that production had a purpose beholden to my values provides much more satisfaction and meaning.
Frankl was a large proponent of this, as he describes in “Man’s Search for Meaning”. Forced to find enduring meaning in the face of a life subjected to Nazi concentration camps, Frankl formulated logotherapy, realizing the power of relativity in one’s circumstances, and therefore, meaning:
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
Viktor E. Frankl
Reframing the rhythm of our thinking from one of suffering to one of meaning is never an easy task. And yet, for any beat to exist, a rest must also exist with it. It is between the beats in the heart of this rest that we can decide how we want to face whatever struggle presents itself to us:
Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
Viktor E. Frankl
In his power to reframe circumstance by imbuing it with meaning, Frankl suggests that we remove the “I” from the struggle all-together, exemplifying the overcoming of struggle for more than just ourselves.
Being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself — be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself — by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love — the more human he is.
Viktor E. Frankl
As Haque states above, in overcoming struggle we find ourselves. Frankl states that upon arriving there, we forget ourselves, utilizing the summation of our self-actualization to better serve others. Thusly, we come full circle in providing others what we needed ourselves: hope.
Democritus
Democritus was a scientist, philosopher, and primarily remembered today as the Western formulator of the atomic theory. As a man of science and philosophy, Democritus championed curiosity over knowing, for upon knowing, many would cease to continue asking questions.
Men should strive to think much and know little.
Democritus
In continuous thinking, we advance our Sisyphusian task to persevere onward the struggles before us and before society at large. To rest is to wrest away any opportunity for our growth, negating any challenges to our perceptions.
Democritus understood the balance of embracing struggle and enjoying it. Not all struggles are created equally, with some lower on our hierarchy of needs than others. In pursuit of meaning, we are at times given the opportunity to enjoy the struggle if we choose to do so.
Democritus was a true scientist. He had a passionate desire to discover the cosmos around us while having fun. He once said, “A life without parties would be like an endless road without an inn.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson
We each engage in the narratives of those we intersect with as we live out our own. As we navigate our own struggles, we too, if it is within our conscience, take up the toil of the greater social narrative. Given the opportunity, we can not only find meaning, but find joy in seeking it.
We all have struggles, some of greater worth and value to our well being than others. Imbuing them with purpose, we meet Sisyphus where he stands: content and happy with his endeavor.
