Ithaca represents a homecoming. In Homer’s Odyssey, it is the island Odysseus yearns for during his long wanderings, the earthly place of family and human connection. For Camus, choosing Ithaca means choosing the human over the divine, the tangible over the abstract, solidarity over transcendence.

After a month of cultivating lucidity, we arrive at a decision. Clear-sighted awareness of our condition leads not to despair but to a deliberate choice. We reject the comfort of religious or ideological absolutes that promise escape from the human predicament. Instead, we embrace what is real and immediate: our shared fate with other people, the earth beneath our feet, the struggles we face together.

This choice requires courage. Frugal and audacious thought means thinking boldly while accepting limits. Lucid action means acting with full awareness of life’s absurdity. The generosity of understanding means extending compassion to others who share our condition rather than judging them from imagined heights of certainty.

The rebel Camus describes is not someone who destroys for the sake of destruction. The rebel is someone who, having seen clearly, chooses human solidarity over divine promises. This is the culmination of lucidity: not just seeing the world without illusions, but choosing to remain faithful to it anyway. We choose the difficult, beautiful work of being fully human among other humans, awake to our condition, committed to each other.