The Torture of Sisyphus

I had a choice to make today and made it.  It was not a difficult one, but one of some importance. 

I found this. 

“Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled, the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day.”


I was inspired, to say the least.  Inspired to do what?!?

Being completely ignorant of what exactly the type(s) of torture poor Sisyphus underwent, clearly it had to be less frustrating than the repetition of housework. 

Come to think of it, I wonder just how much housework Simone actually did.  Was there hired help?  Perhaps someone else did those chores.  I digress.

Researching poor Sisyphus, I read that, according to Albert Camus, gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.

"Futile and hopeless labor" is, in the opinion of this author, one of the best descriptions of housework ever created. 

The late Erma Bombeck, however, said it best:  "Housework is a treadmill from futility to oblivion with stop-offs at tedium and counter productivity.”

And so, out of respect for two writers, whose work I admire greatly, I shall not try and compete with their wit and wisdom regarding domestic chores. 

I shall, instead, pay homage to them by blogging.