Paging Sisyphus

You may not think that the old characters from Greek and Roman mythology have much to do with your life, but take it from me - they do.

Consider Sisyphus.

As a punishment for his actions on earth, the gods had devised a terrible punishment for Sisyphus: he was condemned for all eternity to roll an enormous boulder to the top of a mountain...but just as he reached the summit, the stone would slip from his hands and roll back down to the base of the mountain, where he would have to begin the task yet again. In the gods' view, an eternity of futile, hopeless labor would be the worst of punishments.

Well, in those days, the gods didn't have the same view of futile, hopeless labor that we have today. Back then, rolling boulders up steep mountainsides over and over was the best they could come up with. How might the gods punish Sisyphus today? Here are a few ideas...

1. Endlessly wait for a parking place, only to have another driver cut him off and steal it from him.

2. Work hard, be frugal, and save his life long, and then have some amoral MBA ass clown not only loot the savings he worked so long and hard for, but escape all punishment for doing so while laughing at him for being such a trusting chump.

3. Walk up and down nonfuntioning DC Metro escalators every day.

4. Condemn him to clean up Bilbo's study (no, wait, Hercules already got that one as the updated version of cleaning the Augean stables).

5. Offer him an eternal choice between Republicans and Democrats.

Just a few ideas. Of course, concerning that Republicans and Democrats thing, if I were a Greek or Roman god, I'd just throw lightning bolts at the lot of them. Or maybe get Hercules to use that Augean stables dodge to get rid of them all. The possibilities are endless.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo