Sisyphus Unchained: The Struggle That Sets Us Free
Sisyphus—the eternal struggler, condemned to push his boulder up the hill, only for it to roll back down again. A punishment, the Greeks said. A meaningless, endless cycle.
But what if we’ve been reading it wrong? What if Sisyphus isn’t cursed? What if he’s becoming?
Rumi’s Reflection: The Boulder as a Mirror
Rumi tells us, "If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?"
In this light, Sisyphus is not being crushed by his boulder—he is being shaped by it. Every push is a rub, smoothing away illusions, sharpening his awareness, clarifying his purpose. The struggle is not an obstacle. It is the process.
He could complain, resist, curse the gods—but that only increases the suffering. Instead, he accepts the push, learns from it, lets it polish him.
The New Sisyphus isn’t a prisoner. He is a craftsman, and his own soul is the material.
Rollo May: The Courage to Push
Rollo May, the great existential psychologist, speaks of "the courage to create." He saw struggle not as something to escape but as something essential for becoming truly human.
For May, true creativity and true selfhood emerge through tension. No challenge, no growth. No friction, no form. No boulder, no Sisyphus.
May would say that Sisyphus has two choices:
- Push and grow—struggle with full awareness, knowing that resistance is what gives us shape.
- Resist and break—collapse under the weight, cursing the struggle, never realizing its purpose.
And this is where most people fail. They see struggle and assume it is meaningless. But May tells us: the ones who push through, the ones who embrace the friction—these are the people who truly live.
Fuzzy Logic and The Freedom of Sisyphus
And so, we step into fuzzy logic.
Does Sisyphus struggle in vain? Yes and no.
Is he cursed? Yes and no.
Is he free? Yes—and only when he realizes it.
In the Old Story, Sisyphus is the fool of the gods.
In the New Story, he is the master of his fate.
He rolls the boulder, but the boulder also rolls him—into something greater.
And maybe, just maybe, he starts pushing faster—not to escape, but to see how strong he can become.