An Interesting Night at the 7-11

I had an interesting experience at the 7-11 last night that I thought at least one or two of my four readers might find interesting. I swing by the 7-11 once in while on my way home from work and there is usually the same guy working. He seems to always be in a good mood and makes the customer feel special. He looks to be a bit of a hippie type. He has a medium-length beard and covers his long hair with one of those knitted beanie hats. I would put his age at 22-25. From the little bits of conversation I have had with him, I get the impression that he may be one of those quiet intellectuals. He is quite articulate and has a vocabulary that screams college educated.

Anyway, I was in last night and when I got to the counter he asked how it was going and responded that it was going good and asked how he was. Before he could answer I interrupted with a question. I apologized and asked him again how he was doing. He seemed out of character, a little down perhaps as he kept looking in the direction of some punk kids who appeared to be stuffing store items in their pants. It was at this moment that my suspicions of an intellect were confirmed. He said, “I feel a little like Camus’ interpretation of Sisyphus.” Okay. So at this point I am thinking, “Okay, I am familiar with who Albert Camus is and I think that Sisyphus is a mythological character, but I have no idea what he is saying.” The clerk then goes on to say, “If only I can avoid the crap going on around me and just focus on the task at hand, then (and here he actually quotes Camus) ‘The struggle itself...is enough to fill a man's heart.’” So I said, “Well, good luck in that my man,” and I left.

Well of course my curiosity was going strong when I got home so I googled “Camus and Sisyphus” and found out what he was talking about. It turned out to be pretty profound in my opinion. Sisyphus was a Greek mythological figure who was doomed to push a rock up a hill. Whenever he would get it to the top, it would roll back to the bottom and he would have to push it up again. This was repeated eternally. Camus compared the task to the menial jobs we hold. Here I quote from a Wikipedia article on the subject, (I know, I know, Wikipedia is not a good source)

“Camus presents Sisyphus's ceaseless and pointless toil as a metaphor for modern lives spent working at futile jobs in factories and offices. ‘The workman of today works every day in his life at the same tasks, and this fate is no less absurd. But it is tragic only at the rare moments when it becomes conscious.’
Camus is interested in Sisyphus' thoughts when marching down the mountain, to start anew. This is the tragic moment, when the hero becomes conscious of his wretched condition. He does not have hope, but he also figures out the truth and Sisyphus, just like the absurd man, keeps pushing. Camus argues that Sisyphus is truly happy precisely because the futility of his task is beyond doubt: the certainty of Sisyphus' fate frees him to recognize the absurdity of his plight and to carry out his actions with contented acceptance. With a nod to the similarly cursed Greek hero Oedipus, Camus concludes that ‘all is well,’ indeed, that ‘One must imagine Sisyphus happy.’”

Is that not perfect? As I reflect on it, there is no better description for that moment at that time. An interesting night at the 7-11 indeed.