Birthdate March 6, 1933 URS date April 30, 2011
Malik James R. Berry passed away Saturday, April 30, 2011, at Hillcrest Commons in Pittsfield. Jim was born March 6, 1933 in Queens, N.Y., and spent part of his childhood in Honesdale Pa. He attended the Sorbonne University in Paris and served in the Army during the Korean War. Jim returned to NYC where he met his wife and had three children. In 1964, Jim bought his beloved “Maison Verte” in Stephentown, a summer home for his family. He retired there in 1995 after a career as a free-lance writer and science radio program producer for the American Institute of Physics. Jim wrote many magazine articles and books, including science fiction and fantasy books. Jim loved Stephentown and was well-known at the Abode of the Message in New Lebanon. Jim is survived by his son Ronan and daughters Stephanie and Noemi.
I spent many afternoons in the early 90s after Universal Worship at the Abode pondering about life and spirit with Jim. He was just transitioning to living full time in the quiet of Stephentown leaving the noise of New York City behind. He had such a joyous and curious approach to life, it was inspiring. He was truely a loving and gentle soul. I have always remembered his plan to write a book called “The Up Book for Down Days.” Who doesn’t need that? I hope he wrote it! Malik is a soul that will be missed on the planet.
Oh my dear, noble Malik, partner of my life for nearly two decades, how I miss the warmth, humor, and companionship of your physical presence! Yet your essence, now far beyond those physical confines you shed nearly a year ago, remains a wonder and a delight.
In the last decade of his life here, Malik’s strong and inquisitive mind gave way to a form of dementia that made ever more room for his heart to shine. During those years, he made a solemn intention to practice the prayer: “Bless all we receive in thankfulness.” He always emphasized ALL. Facing that challenge, Malik amazingly turned loss of memory into being present in the moment, forgetfulness of the world into remembrance of God, vulnerability into tenderness, and his external confinement into an opportunity to practice inner freedom.
Long before his arrival in the Sufi Community, he served in the Army in Austria, studied French at the Sorbonne, and was deeply involved with the Catholic Worker Movement in New York which helped him articulate a life-long solidarity with the poor, opposition to violence and injustice, and a firm belief in the God-given dignity of every person. For the rest of his life, he endeavored to live what one of his earliest mentors, Dorothy Day, called “…the greatest challenge of the day: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us.”
He didn’t finish writing that last book, but he did live it. Ya Fatah, Malik!