Did Sisyphus Ever Make it?

Back in Virginia, Patricia cleaned house for us for sixteen years, until we left the States to return to Paris. Once every two weeks, she spent about three hours on the job, then drove away leaving everything sparkling. No spot of dirt, no trace of soap in the bathtubs remained to be seen, no hairballs from the cat Pishoo and her successor Cerise (each of which she cuddled and cooed to and called “my baby.”) Patricia was efficient, always in a good mood as she went from one room to another, from one floor to the next. She had legal residence, as did her husband, but sometimes brought an illegal helper. 

When we had work to be done and brought in carpenters to redo the deck or painters to repaint a bedroom, and I admired their skills and timeliness, they were often from “El Salbador,” like Patricia herself. I would ask her why her country remained so poor when in the States, her fellow citizens worked so hard and so well, and didn’t they work the same way in El Salvador. She countered that there was no work there, and also that people didn’t need to work as their relatives in the States sent them money. I don’t know about that but I do know that I was happy at Patricia and her family all being legal residents and not risking deportation. When the awful Trump started talking about “rapists and criminals,” I called her from Paris to make sure she was all right and was relieved to hear they had all become legal citizens in the meantime. 

In the Washington Post yesterday, I read about Biden’s plan of giving citizenship to eleven million undocumented immigrants. More and more am I surprised by this President. From the start, one could guess he was a decent, conciliatory person and would try hard to turn into a once-again functioning entity the country torn by Trump . But I realize daily that he will be much more than that, not a “let’s try this– oops, it’s not working, so how about that?” President. He knows time is short–his, the country’s if it is to regain reason–and he’s shooting for the stars. But I now believe that patient, determined, with a wider view than any of his predecessors, he will certainly reach some major goals, if not all (rabid Republicans will fight him every inch of the way!) But this, ensuring that the brave, modest, hard-working undocumented 11 million immigrants who keep the wheels of the country turning are finally legal citizens, that is a lofty, too-long delayed, admirable goal and yes, what a celebration that would be! 

Profoundly knowledgeable about politics, party positions, and different ways of reaching some sort of consensus, Biden will steadfastly apply himself to reaching (maybe) feasible goals. These are often the same as President Obama’s, who tried with all his might (immigration, weapons, healthcare are some of the areas he tried hard to fix) but had, as we know, several strikes against him, making it all but impossible to achieve all he was hoping. Not only was he a Democrat, but also, like Biden, sensible, civil, not giving way to discouragement. But what made him extraordinary to voters such as myself–the poise, the intelligence, the perseverance, the intellectual and moral elegance–still left him Black in a conservative country (therefore the only democracy to still apply the death penalty, to allow people to run amok with arsenals including assault weapons, to witness Black people murdered on street corners by white cops who get nothing but a rap on the fingers, a tsk-tsk, and no retribution or real punishment.)

So, I root for Biden and especially for his plan to legalize immigrant workers as I root for all the generous and sensible and long-thwarted moves we read about every day, I don’t remember how Sisyphus’ story ends. Did he ever manage to push the boulder to the top of the mountain? Did he secure it there?