Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

Speech and Theater Arts

Essay
Name: Lor, Krista Amzi A. Date: April 24, 2024
Course and Block: ENL 2209-1 Professor: Prof. Talisayon

Desiderata: A single boulder against the universe

“And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors
and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham,
drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.” (Max
Ehrmann, Desiderata, p. 10)
Recall Sisyphus一the great king who cheated death twice, cursed to push a boulder from
the depths of Hades to the top of a hill, repeatedly, for the rest of his waking days. Sisyphus, the
infamous symbol of modern mankind’s absurd dilemma: Man’s desire to find meaning, against
the world’s indifference towards this longing. Even when a man says that he could not care less
about his own life, since “it’s not rocket science, really”. We work all our life trying to create
essence to our own existence, in ways that we know best: We study, we work, we read, we write,
we make art, we spend our time with the people we love, we spend time with ourselves, we
ponder, or we sit in silence. And yet, everytime we come close to finding this “meaning”, we
would doubt if it’s the real thing. This is the boulder that we are doomed to carry.
The thing is, to perceive life as a boulder that mankind is cursed to push up a hill would
be counterintuitive of the notion that “life is meaningless”. Because if both were to be considered
as truths, would it not mean that the boulder is light? It’s an empty shell, a fruitless journey that
centuries of generations have to live through. That would make all existence pointless一but if
you were to go outside for a minute, to leave the four corners of your lonely and quiet room,
would you still be able to confidently say that life, in all its form, from the birds, the trees, even
the pollution caused by the over-industrialization of cities一if you were to see both sides
humanity, be it for good or evil, aren’t all things done with purpose? It’s funny when you think of
it, that what the absurd is trying to prove is that despite everything we do, life would be
meaningless. And yet in its own argument, the absurd was able to prove otherwise. Like what the
infamous Camus said, “One must imagine Sisyphus happy”.

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 Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila

“And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.”
Life is not meaningless, but it sure is full of uncertainties. These uncertainties are often what
makes us feel that life does lack essence, because whenever we feel that we are close to attaining
what we think is the meaning of life, some kind of unexpected event would come and take it
away from us. The thing is, it is not that whatever we do would be of no use to the bigger plans
of the universe, it’s just that most of the time, we’re trying too hard to go against its flow. Like
Sisyphus, we keep on questioning the natural laws of the universe, wishing to free ourselves
from the grasps of fate, trying to “cheat death”一and so with this stubbornness, we are cursed
with our own boulders to carry.
Even at the face of the absurd, the seemingly lack of essence in living, it is still on our
hands whether or not we’d choose to live in goodness, empathy, and peace, or to spend our lives
chasing the wrong path towards greed and obstinacy. Despite all the uncertainties that we may
encounter in life, the best you could do to not live dreadfully is to take life as it is, and to be a
beacon of kindness and optimism in the midst of a dark world. “And whatever your labors and
aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.” In creating your own
meaning, choose peace.