Jim Forest, Memory Eternal

 

I was heart broken to learn last night that Jim Forest has passed away.  Like my recent post about the passing of Dr. Sheila Hafter Gray I considered Jim a friend and mentor.  Our correspondence began prior to my time in Iraq in 2006 but picked up in earnest after my deployment there and continued with few interruptions up until just this past year.  

He encouraged my writing and photography in its infancy, even buying me a professional account on flickr.com when Elias was first born and I was only able to post a few photos a month on my limited account.  It opened up a wider world of creativity and inquiry that set the mold for me in using these outlets to cope with the stress and struggles of life, to find hope and meaning.

We shared a love of photography but it was his writing life that sung most sweetly.  Like Forest Gump he was involved in some form or manner with many of the people and events that helped shape our modern era, but on the positive side of things.  He was close friends with many of the spiritual giants of the 20^th century to include Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, and Thich Nhat Hanh.  He wrote biographies for each of them and more than one in some cases, but I was most influenced by his spiritual writings to include “Praying with Icons” and “Loving Your Enemies”.  

He founded the Orthodox Peace Fellowship whose periodical and active online community was a refuge for me during my time in the Army.  I was conflicted in my life choices at the time and Jim was a source of encouragement and love without judgment.  When he was planning to come to the US (from the Netherlands) for a speaking tour during a politically fraught time I suggested we spirit him from house to house and region to region in the “Forest Underground”, tongue firmly in cheek.  He loved that sentiment and the playful idea I floated of creating t-shirts from a doodle I made for the “occasion”.  

And thank the good Lord he was able to recently publish a memoir for us to share in his adventures over the  course of his 80 years here, “Writing Straight with Crooked Lines”.  May his memory be eternal.