🤕 TREE 764: The incident in Oxford

Saturday 30 March 2024: Christine and I were walking down Cornmarket Street between the thousand year-old church tower and the McDonald’s when this man waved his hands at us, then spoke. His voice was husky, gravelly, barely audible above the tourists and shoppers. ‘Sorry, what was that?’ I said.

‘The end of the world,’ he said, vocal cords ragged, ‘it’s happening, sooner than you think.’

‘Is it?’ I asked.

‘Look at Sudan,’ he said. ‘Look at Gaza. Look at Ukraine. Look at the climate catastrophe.’

‘I suppose,’ I said, ‘but that’s a bit of a downer on the first spring day when things are finally feeling hopeful.’

‘I’m just doing my job.’

‘Are you part of some religion?’

‘No, it’s just me, Steve-o, Gary and Burnt Fred.’ He pointed to three men standing a few feet away. ‘I said job. It’s more of a calling.’

‘Do you do this every Saturday?’

‘Every day, mate. We’re sleepwalking into a bloody extinction.’

‘Is that why your voice is so wrecked?’

‘We’ve been out here shouting for weeks. These three have got nothing left’

‘So what you’re saying is—‘

‘Don’t go there, mate.’

But I was overwhelmed by Oxford, by a city dedicated to teaching and learning for 900 years, by finally having some decent weather, by having been awake since 5:15 that morning, and I went there. ‘So you’re telling me that you and your three friends are—‘

‘I’m warning you: if I hear what you are about to say one more time, I will lose the last fingerhold I have on my self control.’

I couldn’t stop. ‘—the four hoarse men of the apocalypse?’

8 minutes later, Christine and I left the Tesco Express she remembered passing. I was holding a bag of frozen peas to my face. With my right eye – the left was swelling shut and not focussing so well – I saw the man again. He was walking with Steve-o, Gary and Burnt Fred and massaging the knuckles of his right hand. He looked at me and nodded. I nodded back. I think we both knew it was worth it.

Oxford though.

Member of the FFOREST and proprietor of Baxley bag company, Lyndsay Lucero shared this the other day. What a performance!

Grow slowly
Jeff