I want to tell you a story about a classic weekend. Originally, it was a story I was not going to write about. Why? Because at the time I decided it was going to be a break from documenting. It was going to be a true vacation with two good friends. Two good friends who flew all the way across the country to spend a weekend with me in my childhood hometown doing things we loved doing together. I had just moved away from these two friends and was so excited to spend the weekend with them that I did not want to take too much time away from the experience doing my typical documenting that I do. I did not take an incredible amount of pictures like I usually do. I do have some. Mostly because I just love taking pictures, but now more then ever I am glad that I did take these pictures. I am glad because it was the last weekend I spent with my very dear friend, Ben Geiger. Also, in thinking back on the story of the weekend it really encompasses nearly all the beautiful aspects of my friendship with Ben. The story has inter-workings that speak directly to the wonderful man, friend, business partner, and mentor to me that Ben has been to me. I knew I needed to write about his death at some point, and I feel like I am in the right place to do so now. So I will weave in and out of the story of this one particular weekend, and about my relationship with Ben. It will get long. We've been friends for twenty wonderful years in the prime of our twenties and thirties.
Paul, Me, Ben (L to R) |
^Ben and our buddy, Paul Wright, flew in from Utah on a Thursday night, and we had a classic weekend in