LABOR IN VAIN

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A bead of sweat ran down a scorched forehead toward a dirty, bushy brow. There, similar to its predecessors, it ended its path. Soon after followed another, and another … under this scorching heat, it was no wonder. But the sun was not what bothered the man. His hands were busy digging a pit. Yes! A pit. A pit for what, you may wonder. Well, that was what was bothering our still relatively young man, according to his years. 

All of a sudden, an inner image of a man pushing a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back, entered his mind. “Wait”, the man thought. “I remember reading about this. Gods punished some guy. As punishment, he had to roll a boulder up a hill, but it always fell back. Who was the guy again?” he further pondered. After a while, the answer came to him: “Sisyphus”.

That Greek story may have been only a myth, but our hero was being hit by a realization. In this modern day and age, here he was reliving a myth of ancient times. With each scoop of the shovel, they came closer to finishing their assignment. And in all reality its destruction. In this camp, under the guards from hell, digging up pits could only mean a couple of things. The majority were covered up after being finished. And they? They were assigned to dig up another. They were like modern replicas of Sisyphus. Asigned to labor in vain.

Dig, dig, and dig.

Dig, dig, dig!

1. The image was created via Canva.com