Touching the Ancient One

May 30, 2006
    In my book, Touching the Ancient One, and on this website, I’ve tried to focus on the good that can eventually come from bad happenings—in our case, the crash of a military aircraft five decades ago and the resultant interactions of families of survivors and victims. That crash was an accident. There are, however, other types of experiences people are forced to deal with.
    A man by the name of Gary Geiger worked in a motel here a little over twenty years ago. The motel was robbed and Gary was shot, sustaining an injury that nearly killed him. He recovered, but was an angry, frustrated man because of the incident. The beauty of Gary’s story is that he conquered that anger—rose above it, and used the experience to help other victims do the same. Most surprising was his decision to forgive.
    Sunday, at Scotia United Methodist Church, Gary Geiger was presented with the Stimmel Peace with Justice Award of Troy Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, in honor of his accomplishments.
    A book about the reconciliation that took place between Gary and his attacker was published in 2005. I have not read it myself, but I will. Here is a link to Justice Restored: The Gary Geiger and Wayne Blanchard Story. It has also been added to Choice Amazon Books & DVDs.

Rupert