Dear New School Friends,

First of all, I want to thank all of you for staying with The New School through the past year of extraordinary turmoil. The pandemic, the politics, the disruption of our lives, and all the rest. I want you to know that The New School is alive, vibrant, and benefitting from the guidance of Kyra Epstein, my partner in all The New School’s work.

It’s been some time since I have written to you, although I have continued to record New School conversations (which you can find on our website). As some of you know, the past year has been an interesting one for me. I had a major surgery for an abdominal aortric aneurysm  at the end of July 2020. I went through seven months of steady recovery. Then I was told I could exercise. I did and immediately popped some hernias along the incision line. I was told I needed a second quite significant surgery to put mesh over the hernias. But a wise old vascular surgeon told me that, in his experience, people my age (77) who have a second significant surgery before the first is fully healed rarely regain their full energy. He said I would know when my first surgery was healed when the incision line turns white. I am still a good distance from white. Continue reading →