PHOENIX -26/04/2013 A visitor

I think some of you may have been following the travels of my friend Earthian, if not, I encourage you to take a look: (http://earthianblog.wordpress.com/). I met Earthian in the early days of Occupy at St. Paul’s, Earthian quickly took charge of the tents, and would organise where they were placed and keep an eye out for their condition.  Occupiers,, were not, generally speaking, notable for their good housekeeping, a fact that Earthian deplored, frequently bemoaning the discovery of a heap of wet blankets or a crumpled tent in need of re-rigging. Full of fun and good humour his serious side was exemplified by his announcement, at the first anniversary event at St. Paul’s, that he intended to embark on a peace mission to the middle East, without ID, passport or money.  The blog I have recommended is an account of this journey.

Earlier this week Earthian rang me, back in England he wanted to meet up, and we arranged for this to be yesterday at the project.  We spent a wonderful few hours.  The stories of this journey are extraordinary, as are the quantity of “kindly persons” that populate these accounts.

Of course, if you know Earthian, this is unsurprising, he is a one man disarmament campaign.  He is thinking about writing an account of his travels,that will expand on his blog, which was written in difficult circumstances, and pulled together my good friend Em, who was also at the project yesterday for this little reunion, and we are both hoping to help him.

On the wall of the project is a photograph of Earthian tending a fire when he was camping with the Nomads, a group that formed after the eviction of St Paul’s and who set up small, short-term encampments in various locations in east London. The Phoenix project felt like a completely new context in which to place this unusual character but here he is: