The last American man

Earth Week culminated in a presentation by Eustace Conway on April 25th, in Boyd. Tall, thin, with long grey hair, today braided into two pigtails, a shy Conway seemed both overwhelmed and delighted at the packed room. An unassuming man, he began softly, but by the end of his presentation, he inspired a standing ovation. Conway spoke about a sustainable future. On his preserve, Turtle Island, Conway lives as close to nature as he can. This means everything from growing his own food, hunting, doctoring his own wounds and so forth. Some of his critics claim that Conway is not true to his ideal of living with nature because he uses some modern items, such as clothing and tools. Conway takes this in stride though and states that he has lived completely free of any of society’s amenities and has been fine. He chooses to use these modern things — he doesn’t need to. Conway, now 44, found solace in nature at a young age. Raised in a sometimes-abusive home, Conway would often spend his days in the woods, learning about the world around him and understanding how he could survive on what it could offer. He does not want to force people to his views; instead he stated that changing even the smallest thing could benefit nature. For instance, he has lived 25 years without electricity. However, he realizes that the interns that come to Turtle Island find it hard to adjust to. Conway has compromised and plans to install solar panels. Although Conway is passionate about what he does, he understands that not everyone is going to be easily won over. About half an hour into Conway’s talk it felt like no time at all had passed. Conway, no longer shy, spoke with contagious energy. He cracked jokes about human waste and how it makes a good fertilizer. The talk became informal; Conway took questions from the audience and posed some of his own. He asked the audience if they ever wonder about the idea of consumption, if they ever think about where everything they use comes from. He knows: all from the earth. His vegetables are harvested, cooked, eaten; the waste turned into fertilizer and spread on the new crop of vegetables. Conway showed how he does indeed give back what he has taken. Modern society typically wastes more than our ancestors had to consume. We take and take, and soon, Conway says, there won’t be anymore to have. If the current trend of constant consumption is continued, he believes that we are doomed. Conway admits that his chosen lifestyle has been difficult at times. He has come close to dying from starvation and cold, but he insisted that those times taught him to appreciate what he has even more. Conway ended by urging everyone to be more careful, to be less wasteful and to understand that they can live simply even in a modern world. He finished and the room erupted in applause. The audience gave him a standing ovation and Conway beamed. For a moment, the “Last American Man”, as his biographer Elizabeth Gilbert titled him, seemed the most delighted, ordinary man in the world… one who had just spoken extraordinary things.