It hasn’t been a good week around chez Jimbo’s girlfriend. A husband of a friend of one of Jimbo’s girlfriend’s died this week. Jimbo’s girlfriend has gone to a visitation, a funeral and a wake this week. We were planting flowers and dug up some termites. The exterminators who have quoted the job want mucho dinero. Then, we had a hailstorm and Jimbo’s girlfriend was out in it in her new car. It wasn’t damaged, fortunately, however we had one inch hailstones in the front yard when I got home. Now she is worried if it did any roof damage. Then came the worst news. She found out her ex-husband is dating a 23-year-old woman.
First of all, no woman over thirty wants to hear that some man in the latter half of his life is enjoying the pleasure of a woman the age of his children, but for some reason it is even worse if it is someone to whom you were once married. There is some chemistry in young women that makes us all act crazy: ex-spouses, ex-girlfriends, and people in general. I knew it was serious when my girlfriend said that Jimbo would be with a 23-year-old woman if he could. I told her that wasn’t true; that I was happy where I am. And, I meant it. However, it hurt me that she didn’t think I could have a 23-year-old woman if I wanted. I’m sure most attractive twenty-something women would take numbers and stand in line for me if I were available. Okay, maybe not.
Sometimes life just doesn’t go the way we want it and our first reaction is to throw up our hands and say, “what’s the use.”
In Greek mythology there was a dude named Sisyphus. From what I understand, he was the founder and King of a place called Corinth. You remember Ricardo Montalban and his television commercials for the Chrysler Cordoba, don’t you? “Rich Corinthian leather,” he said to describe the upholstery. I think it was actually plastic, but when he said it, it made you feel like you wanted to be in the back seat of that car with the prom queen. That was never going to happen. You may also remember your architecture and the three types of columns in Greek and Roman temples. Doric, Ionic and Corinthian were the names and the Corinthian was the most elaborate.
Anyway, Sisyphus pissed off one of the gods. They weren’t monotheistic back then like most of us are now, so there were numerous gods and their bad sides were readily available. Sisyphus chained up the god of death and people stopped going to hell. The god who ran hell got lonely and mad and then got even with Sisyphus. The god he ticked off went old testament on him, or would have if the old testament had been available at the time. Sisyphus was condemned to spend eternity pushing a boulder up a mountain and when it reached the top, it would roll back down to the bottom. Then, Sisyphus would have to go back down the mountain and push the boulder back up again, over and over, until the end of time.
To some this represents the futility and absurdity of life. We go through our daily struggles and when it’s all said and done, to use the words of Jim Morrison of the Doors, “Nobody here gets out alive.” One of my favorite writers, Albert Camus, wrote about Sisyphus and his fate and compared it to the fate of most men. Camus said that we struggle with our burden, but that we keep doing it. Like Sisyphus, he says, we are superior to our own fate.
Despite the fact that bad things happen in life, it is the nature of man to keep going. We rise above “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,” and like Sisyphus we will continue to push that rock up that hill and when it rolls back down, we push it back up again.
So on days when you’re feeling down, just remember Sisyphus and his struggle, and remember that your struggle is worth the effort. Remember to keep fighting the good fight. Tomorrow will be better. Look forward to it.
Because we always look forward to tomorrow in Jimbo’s world.
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