Atlas

In the war between the Olympian gods and the Othryan titans, Atlas was on the losing side. He was punished by having to hold up the sky at the western edge of the world. He has been holding it up continuously ever since (save a couple minutes when Heracles held it). Now, we are supposed to feel pretty bad for poor Atlas, who we imagine must be in a lot of pain. Few consider that Atlas is probably used to it and not in much pain at all.

Every day, our minds also bear a massive amount of “weight.” It does not seem like it, but the stress of all our motor functions, our linguistic centers and our emotions is enormous. It takes a year for children to figure out how to use their legs and arms properly. It then takes a couple years for them to figure out language. It then takes them another decade or two to get a grip on emotions.

Piece of cake? Hardly. It takes a third of our day through sleep to rest and recover for a sixteen-hour stint of self-management. Introduce a small amount of alcohol or fatigue and our motor functions, language and emotional containment begin to slide. Now, imagine what people who go through strokes or aphasia deal with. With that much fatigue, it is no wonder they completely lose the ability to contain any part of themselves.

This containment is so routine that we forget it is there. We do not image ourselves struggling to walk, talk and stay logical. We have the audacity to assume that our moments of clarity and alertness are the steady state. When we stumble, it is a “breakdown” or we claim we are “not ourselves.” In truth, a staggering, slurring and raving mad individual is who we are all naturally. Through focused work, we suppress our true selves.

After years of doing it, we have become unaware at what a Herculean task it is. In fact, it is more than Herculean; it is Atlasian