Ben Eicher

Call me Ishmael. Or Icarus, because I’ve flown higher than I had the Right Stuff for.  “Eicher will never be great, but he likes competing,” said my college baseball coach, Larry Riley, who would become General Manager of the Golden State Warriors, and draft Steph Curry.  “Ben’s ambition outstrips his talent,” said Dave Marsh, contrasting me with my guitar playing brother, Chris, whose talent outstripped his ambition.

I’m Ben Eicher, ambitionist; Black Hills, South Dakotan; son of a liberation theology Lutheran pastor; grandsons of a Union shop steward and an anti-Union scab; former northern New Jerseyan who grew up there without ever visiting the Shore; former northwest Ohioan; former northwest Nebraskan; former trial lawyer; former bar band bass player; former parochial school religion teacher; former religion consultant for the CBS-TV drama series “Joan of Arcadia”; current weekly columnist for a small town Nebraska newspaper; and forever agitator.