Deborah Darling Gray – Artist
Painting/Tempera Paint, Collage, Writer, Teacher
Sisyphus lives in Hades, the Greek version of Hell. He must forever try to roll a rock up a hill. The rock rolled back upon him just as he reached the top and he was forced to begin all over again. He was being punished because he betrayed a secret of Zeus, who was in Greek mythology the chief of the Gods. The myth of Sisphyus has become by definition one of our versions of hell – making an effort you are forced to repeat over and over just when it looked as if the end was in sight
Love your rock! How nuts is that!
My sister Andrea has a grandson with Down’s syndrome. His name is Jake. Jake is quite a fighter having beaten back leukemia. One source of joy is taking a giant rubber ball and pushing it up a staircase, watching it roll down and then starting the process all over again. This activity evokes a storm of enthusiasm, joy and laughter. Up and down, up and down. Who could ask for more?
Not the sentence to hell the Greeks envisioned. Not a punishment, not a trial. The true way to face challenge, tragedy and trauma is to embrace it? How nuts is that? From what little we know there is no cheese at the end of that tunnel and yet? Not only does Jake love to play with the ball on the stairs he inspires those around him. A guru is one who leads you from darkness into light. I’d say he’s our man.
In the movie, “The Living Matrix”, a woman describes her relationship with a tumor in her brain – one she decided not to have surgically removed. Like any relationship this inner dialogue went through many versions, sequences, levels, depths until finally she experienced the tumor as teacher, as a blessing that shined its light on a spiritual path she had not known existed before she began her journey to heal. I wouldn’t say she grew to love her tumor except that she did. What else besides love can guide you to such a level of complete surrender and acceptance?
If she didn’t have the MRI to prove it – that she was healed – someone might have said, “How nuts is that.” Make way for the new age.
The myth of Sisyphus is just that — a myth. Let’s hear it for Jake!