The Sisyphus Run

Sisyphus is this Greek dude, not a yogurt but king of Ephyrae, when Zeus and his assembly of gods and goddesses were ruling the world and everything walking, crawling on its surface. Being a king, Sisyphus started to think very highly about himself , like as equal of the gods and in doing so he triggered their wrath. They punished him for the eternity at pushing a huge boulder up the hill and once at the top, the boulder would roll over, all the way down the hill and Sisyphus has to start again and again and again for the eternity. Some believe he’s still doing it on Mars….
In 1942, Albert Camus took Sisyphus myth to establish his philosophy of the absurd, describing man’s futile search for meaning, unity, and clarity in the face of an unintelligible world devoid of God and eternal truths or values. Does the realization of the absurd require suicide? Camus answers, “No. It requires revolt.” He then outlines several approaches to the absurd life. The final chapter compares the absurdity of man’s life with the situation of Sisyphus and his meaningless task repeated indefinitely. The essay concludes, “The struggle itself is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy”.
And it is happily that returnees Sting Ray, Serbian, QT, Lok Sap Gao, Penile Demancia gathered at the Lion’s Pavillon, Sui Wo Rd, Overlooking Shatin’s stretch of lights , ready to discover what Geriatric had up his sleeve. It was without hesitation that last week run Geriatric took up the hare job from Gaelle Says No who had to business travel. He must have got something brewing on the back of his mind.
The beginning is very similar to the run set by Golden Jelly a few month ago at the same spot: going back Sui Wo Rd until the Rd goes down to the right and instead take the alley on the left along the residential wall. En route, we can see One Eye Jack dressing up for the run. Check.
Pushing for the similarity, I follow QT who goes up the metalic stairs instead of following the alley. Liberace is already calling for trail deeper in the alley but never mind we keep going up . It is Liberace after all and we quickly find our own Trail. When QT suddenly stop and does repeated large movement with his arm. « It’s a spider web! » « Ho! come on! » and I take over. After the stairs, the trail goes up through the shiggy and fucking hell, there is spider web every 2 meters. How can spiders rebuilt so fast and so many after the hare went through. Or did he? There is all this fresh marking of flour and toilet paper. How can that happen? Does Geriatric have a way to control spider? Is he spider man? I’m shewing these questions and many spiderwebs all the way to the trigonometric marker. Check! I go for left, QT for the right. And we both call trail at the same time. But I keep going. This is QT after all. The trail is going down,steep. And what the fuck! there’s a light shining at the bottom and going up…. Who ‘s that!?
« It’s a T. » mumbles One Eye Jack, going up.
Alright, let’s take a break here. he was late, still changing while we were deciphering the first check and gobbling the first spiders. But it didn’t take to long to reach the top.! So…. Ok, he’s the king of Shortcutters but still. How did he manage to get there before everyone? … Some Merlin wizardry at work here. More question.
On the good trail, Mango has joined QT. Both are arguing the best way to deal with spider web. QT and his arm. Mango and a piece of twig , fencing the air like a gay Dartagnan. It doesn’t take long for Eunuch and Liberace to take control and lead the way. Down, down, down.
And here is where I start to think Sisyphus. You see, when the boulder is going down, at least Sisyphus only has to follow its trail. But for us, mere hasher, our boulder is ourself, it is our stomach, more or less round, more or less raising up our centre of gravity, more or less hurting our joint. And unlike Sisyphus, we have to carry our boulder up and down. And these little boulder bastards of Eunuch and Liberace are racing down like bananas. It hurts to follow them. And it hurts to think that the more we go down, the more we’ll have to go up.
Thanks Geriatric for leading us to the public lift of Sui Wo Estate. Nice relief in our struggle. First there again, One Eye Jack is waiting for us in front of it with a large teethy grin. Eunuch urges the people to get out of the lift, Mango press the closing button frantically, Liberace arrives just too late, butt of the joke. On the intermediate floor, Mango has a look for marking, I try to push him out of the lift but he’s a heavy boulder.
A good laugh, yes but we are also 30m further down. Thanks Geriatric! There won’t be another lift to push ourselves up!
Although I have a sense that OEJ surreptitiously took the lift back up : once we got to the bottom of the bottom of it, along the East Railway, he wasn’t there anymore. And then, who knows what?
I was told that QT and Serbian , our two bone crippled, were considering the cab option after the lift but they didn’t have money, so they carried their boulder all the way back up. Not thinking that the taxi would take them back to their wallet… Hm, not just the bones are crippled. Along the railway, Liberace is in the hurry to go up, searching marks on every path or stair available on the right but the trail keeps going along the railway all the way to Shatin station. Even on the flat, the boulder is getting heavy, making the ascent more and more daunting .
And it begins, through crumbling shacks and tortuous stairs. How long this is going to take? Liberace and Eunuch little boulders bastards are still going bananas. And Mango slowly disappear in the distance. After the shacks, the trail reach a long stretch of bamboo. The path his littered with dry squames of bamboo, so slippery ! But then much faster than expected, with his warm humanity, up above, Mango give a « on home GM! »

Ô Geriatric , thank you in your magnanimity, after taking us so far down and playing so hard with our nerves, fibres, bones, blood and sweat, thank you in your magnanimity to give us such a swift final. Ô Geriatric! Ô Ceasar (you look like him a bit in Astérix books) : Fuck Sisyphus (he’s Greek after all !) and have a beer in the boulder!  – Creme Brulee

Hare: Geriatric

Runners: Radio 1, Golden Balls, Golden Jelly, Liberace, Eunuch, Creme Brulee, QT, One Eyed Jack, Velcro Lips, Dram, Mango Groove, Stingray, Serbian Bomber, Back To The Future, Luk Sup Gow, Beer Tits, T-Bird, Penile Dementia