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Rock Repose LbNA #12089 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Nov 7, 2004
Location:
City:Glen Ellen
County:Sonoma
State:California
Boxes:1
Planted by:Mimulus
Found by: Wascally Wabbit
Last found:Feb 20, 2006
Status:FFFa
Last edited:Nov 7, 2004
Rockrose Repose

"I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

Jack London

"There is only one really serious philosophical problem: suicide…to judge whether life is or is not worth living…. The rest....comes after.”

Albert Camus from The Myth of Sisyphus

There seems to be some controversy over whether London died a death of natural causes (he was mortally ill with kidney failure) or if he took his own life at age 40 with an overdose of morphine. Theories abound...most notably medical arguments that he was suffering from systemic lupus erythematosis, scurvy, or even a case of tropical yaws contracted in the South Pacific. In any event he lived hard and played hard and certainly seemed to burn himself out.

He apparently was deeply depressed. His beloved Wolf House burned to the ground weeks before moving in three years previously and, despite claims to rebuilt, no progress had been made. His experiments in farming were largely failures, his books were not selling, the meteor was running out of fuel. Life must have seemed an uphill struggle.

"Influenced by the philosophers Søren Kierkegaard, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Friedrich Nietzsche, Camus argues that life is essentially meaningless. Camus uses the Greek legend of Sisyphus, who is condemned by the gods to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity, as a metaphor for the individual's persistent struggle against the essential absurdity of life.

According to Camus, the first step an individual must take is to accept the fact of this absurdity. If, as for Sisyphus, suicide is not a possible response, the only alternative is to rebel by rejoicing in the act of rolling the boulder up the hill; Camus further argues that with the joyful acceptance of the struggle against defeat the individual gains definition and identity.

The Myth of Sisyphus firmly established Camus's philosophical stance on the necessity for revolt, but he later gave greater definition to the goal of ceaseless struggle against the absurd."

Encyclopedia Britanica, 1997

So on the 88th annniversary of the end to Jack London's struggle, and the occasion of Kerry's defeat, I dedicate this letterbox to all the disenfranchised and disempowered of the world.

CLUES
Jack London State Park

The cottage gardens at Beauty Ranch

Look for the inscription:
Divide Thy Time
Labour....Service....Repose

Stand facing the west diamond. Say hello to Eliza. Spy the tall pompom straight ahead. Follow the garden path that skirts the pompom and pass the two tables. Watch your step. Turn towards the winter sun and walk until you can line up with the pompom. Reposed under some rocks between the last two trees growing in the wall you will take up the task.