Ben and I were close friends in our teens and twenties. We had grown estranged over the years, as can happen when two people are too much alike in certain ways, and too dissimilar in others.

Ben was an utterly unique individual. He lived in his own world, of music, and mathematics, and metaphysics, and he was deeply rooted in, and a great advocate for, our shared home here in Madison, Wisconsin. Ben lived with bipolar mania, which shaped his worldview and fueled his intellectual pursuits, while tearing his life apart.

He was a talented improvisational pianist and composer, whose musical life was limited later in life by early onset rheumatoid arthritis.