This short article is about how naming my player was with tongue planted firmly in cheek to begin with. Yet, behind the joke, there is actually a message to myself with some rather deep meaning behind it. Consider this "draft article zero", showing those who don't know me, a little more about what makes me tick beyond what happens on the ice.


WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Sisyphus was named after the figure of Greek mythology who defied the gods and put Death in chains so that no human needed to die. When Death was eventually liberated and it came time for Sisyphus himself to die, he concocted a deceit which let him escape from the underworld. In this way, Sisyphus cheated death twice. After finally capturing Sisyphus, the gods decided that his punishment would last for all eternity. He would have to push a rock up a mountain; upon reaching the top, the rock would roll down again, leaving Sisyphus to start over. Despite the torment, philosophers have concluded that all is well with Sisyphus.  Much of life seems pointless, but it’s all about the attitude. Sisyphus comes to accept his fate with contentment as he walks back down the hill [regression?] each time to pick up his great rock and start the climb again. One imagines him happy with his absurd reality.  This is my third player after the first two each failed miserably. I have just taken my first step back up the hill for the third time.

The name Embros was taken from translating the word “forward” into Greek. I am playing a forward, and I believe that the word means something closer to “onward”, which fits with my theme of leaving my past lives in the SHL behind and always moving forward whether I am pushing this figurative rock up the hill or working my way back down to do it all over again.

WHAT’S IN A PLACE?

Sisyphus Embros lists his home as Puxatony, Pennsylvania, which is familiar to Americans with its quaint “Groundhog Day” tradition. This comes from a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition that if a groundhog sees its shadow on February 2nd, it will retreat to its den, and winter will last for another six weeks.  However, in the movie by the same name, the Groundhog Day myth is transformed, although it does take place in Puxatony.

In the movie, Bill Murray’s Phil Conners finds that no matter what he does, every morning he wakes up at the same time, in the same bed, in the same hotel, in the Puxatony, PA at 6AM the same day, February 2nd, Groundhog Day. In every subsequent twenty-four hours he is free to do anything he likes, but soon finds himself condemned to start the whole day over again after he wakes from sleep each evening. Even when he wants to die, he can’t. In a sense he has achieved immortality. But is this immortality a blessing or a curse? In another sense, Conners is like a modern-day Sisyphus, condemned to achieve nothing from his actions in some endless cycle of futility.

I once read that Conners is supposed to have lived this day over and over for a period of 40 years. He initially experiences shock, followed by a giddiness at being godlike with the events around him proceeding in a knowable clockwork fashion. This giddiness turns to despair when he realizes that nothing that he attempts to change is permanent. That is, he cannot affect outcomes for other people. This despair drives Conners to some comical attempted suicides. These are only comical because Conners knows that they will be unsuccessful, as Sonny and Cher will greet him on his alarm clock again the following morning to repeat the same day. Conners realizes that he cannot escape this fate through death. Conners ultimately has three choices, to go insane, to stay sane but miserable, or to accept his fate and in fact embrace it in order to make the best of it. In a sense, he is a more sophisticated incarnation of Sisyphus in that he does have freedom to act as he wishes during each 24-hour repetition.

Conners becomes an accomplished doctor, artist, linguist and musician, using his time each day in the pursuit of new skills and to become more enlightened spiritually. It was said about Sisyphus that, “The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy” So it is when Conners fully accepts the condition that he is in, that he is finally happy. Having reached a form of enlightenment, Conners is finally released from the pattern and finally breaks through to a continuation of his normal life to February 3rd and beyond.

It is like this for all of us in the SHL. We climb and face obstacles along the way. Teammates may quit, GMs may change, rules may change and roles may change. We climb up the mountain and roll back down into regression, only to renew another cycle. We must recognize that in the SHL and in life itself, the reward is not always in attaining some goal. The reward can be journey itself.