Fred Kohn's Blog

"Exciting" news at work

So we had a service talk at the Post Office today. It seems that a mailman somewhere was robbed at gunpoint. What did the robbers take? Only the mailman's uniform and ID badge.

hmmm...

So from now on I'm going to make sure that I'm wearing underwear to work.

In other news, Mike Minton's bone scan came back negative today. That means that he has no cancer in his bones and does not need chemo (thank God!)

Mike Update

As Fred and I receive more updates we will post them here. Mike will be undergoing a bone scan on Thursday to see if the cancer is in his bones again. If the results are positive, he will require 6 months of chemo. If they are negative, he will be having surgery on his lung in about 2 weeks. The plans for surgery is to crack open his chest and "cherry pick" his affected lung, meaning, it will be a manual examination to remove any and all suspicious looking areas. His recovery will be long and the pain intense. Mike, Anya and his parents will be visiting the Longview homegroup/cookout on Thursday 07/21 for prayer, feel free to stop by to meet and pray for him. Please pray for strength, comfort, peace and whatever else God leads you to pray. His family needs prayers too, as well as our daughter. Mike is a strong believer and has a good attitude. Family names are listed below:

Mike Minton- lung cancer
Anya Kohn- girlfriend and significant other
Nancy and Rick Minton- parents (mom is cancer survivor!)
Mark Minton, Molly- Brother and girlfriend
Lorraine Campbell- Mike's grandmother
Fred and Nancy Kohn- Anya's parents and support for Mike's family

More news as we get is. Please let us know you stopped by and are praying.

Proud Mommy

You are never too old to have proud mommy moments! My daughter Anya cut my hair today at the Aveda Institute and she did a rawkin job! I can honestly say that this is one of the best haircuts I have ever had and her instructor told her it was a salon quality cut and style!!! She's only been in school three weeks and this is only her second "live person" hair cut! I was so proud of her taking all her instruction so well, I would have cried had I been under the scrutiny she was while doing my hair. It is such a good feeling to see her so happy and successful, after the year she has had this past year! I have to admit though..it was funny to see her having to stand on a box to reach my hair, poor shorty!!! YAH ANYA! :cheer:

Recent musings

A number of things have occured recently that make me feel honored and blessed. Things like:

Kalayo's neck seems to be healing without the need for surgery :cheer:

I had a nice long talk with my mom while my dad was in surgery on Wednesday, I understand her and myself a lot more now

I saw an owl, in its natural habitat, in broad daylight, next to the Walahalla Bridge on Calumet, and I heard hooting it two days after that

I found a really cool dress at VOA on Indianola for $2.99

I biked 15 miles on Sunday, and granted, my foot hurt pretty badly when I got home, but it was worth it

My foot feels better this morning :laugh2:

I have an incredible husband :coorie:

Yeah me Too has great coffee that you can make at home, where there is a place to sit down :tongue2:

My bills are all paid and we have money left over

Life with no car is better than I imagined it would be, and Clintonville rocks

Jesus loves me this I know, and its not just because the bible tells me so

Sometimes things just seem to fall right into place and life feels so good. I am having an increased interest in reading things from other peoples blogs, like the news from Asia's Hope on John's blog, and Mercy Hands from Lyndi's blog. In fact, I'm really enjoying a lot of blogs right now. Its really neat to read Karen's blog to see news of Simon and Greta, and to see Karen's honesty about life. I feel even more a deeper honesty about life from Patti Simmons blog, and of course, John's blog is always entertaining. I wish Joy could post more from Mississippi, and I love reading how much Dan Thress is in love with Annie, who had a rockin art show. If I had the money, I would have bought the face of God display! Jeff needs to blog more, and Andy Whitman's blog is always thought provoking. I read them all, rarely comment, but then again, people rarely comment on our blog here at pianomoods. Blogging seems to be a great way to see inside people. I like that. I'm liking life a lot right now :laugh2:

Sunday Sunday

:compute:

So today Nancy and I threw the dogs in the bike trailer and took off south down the bike trail. This was new territory for us. We were expecting to get eventually to Confluence park, but it didn't work out that way. Somewhere in the short north the bike trail was closed off, so we had to take a detour towards downtown. We eventually made it to the North Market, but the Ohio Wine tasting event had it closed off as well. Finally we landed at Goodale park, where we finally had a relaxing time.

I read the plaque at the bust of Lincoln Goodale, the man who donated the land for Goodale park. According to the plaque Goodale was the first physician in the area (how does one determine these things? perhaps he was the first rich physician?) and he often treated the poor for free. He also founded Capitol University.

We sat in a bench by the pond which was donated to some woman who according to the plaque on the bench was or is "the martini queen of the short north." This seems to me to be a dubious distinction. Is she known for making a large number of martinis or drinking them i wonder :huh2:

It was a good ride but Nancy's foot is severely in pain right now, and we are wondering if she has a stress fracture. Odds are that she is headed for the doctor tomorrow. :cry2:

Thursday afternoon

Something incredible happened this afternoon that has renewed my hope for a normal future. I will leave my comment at that and just say, I have a HUGE smile on my face and in my heart. :winkk:

Nancy on 07.07.05 @ 03:14 PM EST [more..]

cheeks and shirts

excellent sermon yesterday by mark k. The main point being- the sermon on the mount means little if we don't actually put it into practice. if we just hear it and don't practice it, Jesus calls us foolish.

so the toughest one for me is the cheeks and shirts business.

Mark made the point that turning the other cheek may not be about physical violence. I'm not sure that matters much, because the cheek thing is just an example. Here is an outline of the teaching:

1. Do not resist evil people

a. Do not resist someone who slaps your right cheek
b. Do not resist someone who sues you for your shirt
c. Do not resist someone who forces you to work for them

It seems to me that a-c are intended as examples. They are not the point, but serve only to illustrate the point. Thus whether example a is limited to insults and does not include physical violence is a moot point.

I find example b more interesting. I asked a lawyer who attended my last church, "Bill, you've been a lawyer now for many many years. Have you ever heard of anybody giving "their coat as well" when they've been sued?" Halfway through the question he started smiling, and of course immediately answered no.

Jaques Ellul believes that the 3 examples are all about violence. He says that they are violence against your body, violence against your property, violence against your labor. Thus the 3 examples are intended to encompass any possible violence against your personhood.

Ellul of course is alluding to pacifism- and while I don't find his points about violence particularly persuasive, the fact that there are 3 examples speaks strongly to me about how completely we are not to resist evil people.

Whether or not "the slap" represents physical violence or something different, there is something obviously metaphorical about being slapped on the right cheek. In the normal course of events, one would be slapped on the left cheek. The only way one could get slapped on the right cheek is if one were being slapped by a left handed person, or if one was getting slapped from behind. This is why many believe that we are not talking about physical violence here. Certainly in English we have the metaphor of getting slapped in the face to represent insults. I'm not sure if a cheek slap represents the same metaphor in Greek- or particularly if a right cheek slap represents this metaphor. I see the right cheek as metaphorically representing having violence (whether physical or not) done to us when we are totally "in the right".