Eustace Conway is one of my heroes. The word crisitunity comes from a Simpsons episode wherein Homer, after hearing from Lisa that the Chinese use one word for both “crisis” and “opportunity”, says “Crisitunity!” Crisitunity is the act of using a problem to make a solution.
Eustace Conway practices crisitunity. In his colorful life, he has met and mastered many challenges, challenges that others looked on as impossible. To Eustace, nothing is impossible, and anyone can do anything they set their mind to. He is an avid student of life and is fully alive in the world. He first left home with nothing for the woods at age twelve, and at age seventeen he moved, with little more than nothing, into a tipi in the Blue Ridge mountains. Eustace has made his own clothes out deerskin, has hiked the Alps in tennis shoes, and loves plastic buckets. A unique person, Eustace has been both demonized and glamorized in the press. A movie was made about him, and it was edited thoughtfully. A book was written about him, some of it without his permission or knowledge, part of it was published in a magazine. He often gets invited to talk about his way of life.
Over many years, Eustace has moved through difficulty after difficulty to acquire over one thousand acres of North Carolina mountain land, which he has built into Turtle Island Preserve. Eustace is a steward of the earth, and Turtle Island Preserve is located in one of the best areas on earth. You can visit as an intern, a camper, a family, an adult camper, or just for a horse and buggy ride through the property. If you do visit, you will come away with new skills, a new connection to the earth and a new way to practice crisitunity in your daily life. For now, enjoy a buggy ride.
