Sisyphus And Email

Once you think about it, Sisyphus and email are a natural pairing, sort of like Chicago and cold weather, or Sunday afternoon and naps, or eggs and high prices, cheese and wine, or driving at night and nearly killing pedestrians. Natural pairings…

Back to big ideas. Sisyphus was punished by the gods because of his hubris (lotta hubris out there again). In mythology, there are always gods lurking in the dark corners waiting to exact punishment; the good old days.

Mythology was needed before therapists invented ‘time out’ so, instead of Sisy being confined to an underground cave for 10 minutes with his Ipad, he was condemned to push a boulder up the mountain only to have it roll down again. Deep breath, push, repeat…A little like trying to talk to your children or an ‘agent’ at your insurance company, but that’s another story.

Are you still with me? Email is the boulder. We are being punished because we believe in communication. We wake up, we check our email, answer some, delete some, delay some, avoid others. We feel great when we make a dent in the pile. Then we take a shower or make coffee or avoid exercising. When we come back, the pile has grown, new ones, replies to our emails, more requests to donate money to whatever political party is promising to save democracy, Land’s End having a big sale on fleece, or the dentist is confirming an appointment for the third time, or… an alert that your credit card was used at Walmart for a video game console.

The email never stops because we engage. AARP says ‘engagement, connection, friends’ are all essential for successful aging, but my online engagement comes with ads and pop ups and scams. We’ve become Sisyphus, and I don’t have the answer; my main account probably has 1000 emails that I don’t know where to file (but I can't delete them because I might need something contained within!!!).

Not The Trip We Planned is available at Amazon.com, Koehler Publisher, and your local bookstore can order it for you.