On being Karen Lewis

It’s good to see Karen Lewis being, well, Karen Lewis.

The Chicago Teachers Union president’s trademark humor, wisdom and witty barbs were on full display during an interview Wednesday with the Sun-Times’ Lauren FitzPatrick. This was Lewis’ first public discussion of the brain tumor and treatment that blindsided her last October, forcing her to abort plans to challenge Rahm Emanuel for mayor.

Uncowed and unbowed, Lewis joked about not wishing Emanuel well in the Feb. 24 election: “I don’t really have anything to say to him right now, ’cause it can’t be ‘good luck,’ ’cause I want him to lose.”

She shared candid lessons about what a near-death illness teaches you: don’t pretend you’re always in the driver’s seat; listen to your body; what you do is what matters, not how fast you do it.

“There’s an old Jewish joke,” she said. “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. So I felt like I made God laugh and he said, ‘sit down before you break something.’ ”

Lewis has resumed some of her duties as CTU president and has been campaigning for mayoral candidate Jesus “Chuy” Garcia.

“I don’t know that I’ll ever be back to go-go-go,” she said. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is the work.”

Her down-to-earth, hard-to-impress style is intact. The mayor texted her in the hospital to make sure she was OK. Not recognizing the number, she asked who he was.

Who wouldn’t want to see the content of those texts?

Chicago’s Karen Lewis is on the mend.