The Direction of Intention

53.

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“If you want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.”

Guiseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa

Stories are meant to teach. They are meant to help us know who we are and what is valuable and what is not. They are full of rich imagery meant to guide us and help us live meaningful lives. They hold metaphors that blossom with meaning when read as metaphor and not literally. Here’s one of my favorite story teachable moments:

Sisyphus wraps a chain around Hades and padlocks him to a post. Hades cannot move. He struggles against his chain; he huffs and curses. He threatens Sisyphus. And, with Hades safely chained to a post, Sisyphus returns to his breakfast and takes a good long look at death.

Because Hades is captive, no one can enter into the underworld. No one can die.

Hades is madder than a hornet. He is the embarrassment of the gods. Without death, nothing changes, nothing can change: old folks keep on going, brutal injuries aren’t fatal. Disease and pestilence come along – nothing works as it should. Summer refuses to give way to autumn.

The gods are not amused. They command Sisyphus to let Hades go! They threaten him! They put enormous pressure on him. Still, he sits and contemplates. He cocoons.

The people put enormous pressure on Sisyphus to keep the padlock locked. Even though they live days with no end, life without mystery, they beg Sisyphus to keep Hades in chains. Without death, the sun stops moving through the sky. Crops wither. Wells go dry. People hunger and thirst but at least they know what tomorrow will be like!

Sisyphus watches nature go awry. Nothing works as it is supposed to. He watches people grow completely numb to each other. Life is predictable and, therefore, fundamentally meaningless.

Sisyphus is in a bind. To let Hades go will surely mean the end of his life – at least as he knows it. To perpetuate this meaningless-ness, even for one more moment, is un-bearable. He is terrified.

(Here’s the moment I love!) He realizes that to open the lock is to choose death and uncertainty. To keep Hades chained is also to choose death, another kind of death that comes from absolute certainty. The first kind of death fires his imagination, makes it run wild; it terrifies and exhilarates him. The second kind of death kills his imagination and smothers his desires.

Sisyphus stands, opens the padlock and he lets Hades go free.

The path of uncertainty will always fire your imagination and make it run wild. It will terrify and exhilarate you. If you are feeling smothered, if you have chained yourself to a post of predictability and too much certainty, will you open your lock and step into uncertainty?

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