Every so often I find an opportunity to introduce some new aspects of life or some science to my son. And sometimes a piece of mythology finds its way into our life (of course I leave out any gruesome details, of which there usually are plenty). My son is very curious and often starts to ask questions when I start telling him about something that is new to him. Thus he is now quite familiar with the rotation of earth, of the sun and the moon and of basic requirements to build stable constructions, the latter being in full display in his LEGO endeavors where buildings are surrounded by a sea of bricks that to my bare feet almost seems more dangerous than a shark infested ocean.
Today was one of those days when my son was only focused on what I would like to call entropy play (I need to talk with him about that one of these day) and not at all interested in helping me clean up the scattered pieces of plastic lying everywhere. Normally we clean up his toys together before going to bed, but not today – rather it was quite the contrary. As soon as I had put blocks in the container they were back on the floor again, and repeating this dance made me think of Sisyphos. So I ended up telling my son about the king and his big round stone and the hill, explaining that it normally is a good idea to avoid repeating doing the same work over and over again when it is not at all necessary.
Normally curious, normally asking question after question, the story of Sisyphos did not seem to inspire any curiosity to the point where I was not even sure if he had been listening at all and just wanted to continue putting his dad’s patience to the test. Of course being told about not creating more work for your dad is not a very inspiring thing to listen to for a toddler (come to think of it, it seems rather counterproductive), but I am not dismayed, being a parent I have found means infinite occasions to think of Sisyphos, so I will just up that subject another time. And find a more curiosity-inspiring way to share my storytelling.
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