Finding an Old Friend

Last night as I was watching the 11 o'clock news, I thought about someone I knew when I was a boy, in high school, in college, and then after college for a couple of years.

Her name is Karin Stephan. She is two years younger than I. We both grew up in Berwyn, a Chicago suburb, a few blocks from each other. We attended Morton High School. And then we both attended Northwestern. Sometimes we were in the same literature classes, such as Erich Heller's class on Thomas Mann and Richard Ellmann's class on James Joyce.

Immediately after college, we both lived on the Near North Side of Chicago. I ran into Karin and her boyfriend, a Newsweek reporter, from time to time. In 1966, he was assigned to Newsweek's Paris Bureau, and Karin went with him.

The last time I saw Karin was in 1978. Quite by chance, I phoned her parent's home and Karin answered! She had returned to the States, settling in Boston, and was visiting her parents. She invited me out to see her.

Karin told me she had become a vegetarian. She might have told me about her passion for yoga, but I can't remember. I lost touch with her after that visit.

Until last night.

As I thought about her, I decided to Google her name. Bingo! I found her own web site just like that!

http://www.yogamacro.com/

Karen became a yoga practitioner years ago and has operated a studio in Cambridge, Mass. for a long time. I was delighted to learn this. I took yoga classes for two years at Yoga Works in Santa Monica a few years ago. I know what a great form of exercise yoga is, and I respect Karin for making yoga her life's work.