*huff huff wheeze*

 THE SISYPHUS DERBY

    On November 21, 2024, I held the world's first ever Sisyphus Derby. The premise was simple: we would push people up and down a hill in rolling chairs. It was a bit tougher than expected, and we only had two chairs, so not a ton of pushing got done. That was the point.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zhr94UPb64PtzZbvjJO8pExd6l1KLuTt/view?usp=drive_link

    This work was originally inspired by the myth of Sisyphus, and the absurdity and madness of his circumstances, along with the phrase "one must imagine Sisyphus happy". Why is Sisyphus happy? Necessity. His circumstances won't change so he has to, in a true act of madness, be happy in spite of his misery, there's no way he can go to happiness at the top of the mountain, as he knows he will never arrive, so he must be content in his current misery, if he wishes to be happy at all. So do we.
    Suffering is a cycle, and comes back to use over and over, no matter how many times we push it away, conquer our goals and achieve our highs. Suffering in life is inevitable, but you can choose your reaction. As Sisyphus chooses absurd happiness, so should we if we wish to be happy at all. The boulder always rolls back down the hill, so enjoy the climb. One of the easiest ways to do that, is with friends.
    Suffering and friends is my favorite two flavor combo. Suffering with others easily binds people together, and creates community like nothing else, while friends make suffering much more bearable. Sisyphus has to fight his boulder alone, but thankfully we don't have to. We get to push each other up that hill. How lucky are we.
    
    Tasty as this one two is, it still doesn't alleviate the suffering, there is still the rolling up, and rolling down; the before and after; the fight and the come down. Those moments of true victory are so few and so fleeting, but they are real. Even without their tangible presence, they are bound deep in you. I'm not sure what it all means, where we're pushing or if we're actually even going anywhere. I kinda doubt it. There may be no meaning to it, and if there is, it's probably something corny like "the real boulder was the friends we made along the way", but that is also the best part. I think our suffering is a lot simpler than we tell ourselves it is, and the solution is probably something corny like that. So relax, dig deep and push hard. Enjoy it, or enjoy nothing at all.

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