What Albert Camus didn't tell you
And he came upon a man sweating and staining to
push a massive round stone up a hill. As the man reached the top of the hill,
the rock slipped from his grip and tumbled down into the valley
again.
He had seen this terrible sight
before, and was prepared to move on, except that he noticed that the man was
looking down on the stone below with a look of defeat, but with satisfaction,
even pleasure.
So he went over and talked to
the man, who was striding down the
hillside.
"My friend, " he said, though they
had never spoken before, "How is it that you seem so cheerful? This was not the
case when I saw you last."
"Too true. Right.
Well, you see, after doing this over and over again for the longest time, It
suddenly hit me. This thought, I mean, not the rock." He gave a self-conscious
laugh at the feebleness of his humor. "I just thought,
what if the purpose of all this was to
carve a groove in the hillside? And ever since
then, I've been very careful to maneuver the rock so it goes down the same path.
And I have to say, the groove's getting pretty
good."
For a while they walked along, and
then he said to the man, "You might be wrong about the
purpose."
"Yeah, I
might."
"And even if you aren't, it's a
bit--"
"--pathetic?"
"Not
quite so strong as that--"
"Hey, who's in
Hell and who's not?"
"You have a
point."
"I might. Now, if you'll excuse me, I
have work to do."
And as he walked away, from
far behind him, he heard, carried on the hot sulphurous winds, a voice crying
out Wheeee!
Posted: Saturday - September 17, 2005 at 12:33 PM