PODCAST

the rohn report

dissertations on almost anything about being human / contemporary and humorous observations / bulletins and notifications / tips and quips / sermons rohn.substack.com

All Episodes

12:20

Who am I?

the rohn report ·

2021/11/11

I’ve been writing this newsletter for a little over a year. I figure maybe it’s time to introduce myself: my status, my credentials, my philosophy of life.My friend Thoreau expects every writer to give an account of themselves. He says at the very beginning of his famous book Walden published in 1854: “Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men’s lives; some such account as he would

12:11

two book reviews / two bookstores

the rohn report ·

2021/11/05

So I’m in Nowhere Books on Broadway and there on the counter, sitting in a plastic display stand, is a small squarish shaped book with an irresistible peach colored cover.It grabs my attention, obviously, since it’s the only book on the counter. Written in large letters that occupy the entire front of the book are the words ‘HOW TO RESIST AMAZON AND WHY’. An upside down Amazon smile underlines the word ‘Amazon’. Clever. I pick up the book and open it at random - ‘Chapter 1, On Amazon and the

8:45

Halloween! Boo!

the rohn report ·

2021/10/28

Halloween is supposed to be scary but is it really? Our dearly departed loved ones come back to visit us and we have a picnic in the park, or the cemetery as the case may be, with all kinds of tasty treats. Atleast that’s the tradition around here, the Mexican style Day of the Dead. There are altars set up around town with calaveras (skulls) which sounds very close to calabaza (pumpkin). Hmm, is that a thing? Anyways, Halloween. The altars around town are really art pieces but everyone makes

4:33

existence is for joy

the rohn report ·

2021/10/21

I heard that the other day and it’s been ringing in my mind ever since. Talk about pungent. Talk about concise, precise. Talk about mind bending. Existence is for joy. That’s a sentence with some resonance. Let’s talk about string theory. Turns out (according the the string theorists) that everything is made out of tiny vibrating strings, all the matter in the universe and the forces that act upon it is made up of tiny vibrating strings. It’s a symphony. All those chords resonating and

a frog in the fish pond

the rohn report ·

2021/10/14

It was singing last night - one lonely little frog. It wasn’t a whole chorus like in the springtime but it was chirping away, thrumming its tune. I thought about it, how it had survived the trepidations of Kybo the cat, the ardent and stealthy hunter, and not only that but its progenitors had survived as well. A remarkable and fortuitous accomplishment.There was a time when there were no frogs in the fish pond and then they appeared somehow. Still haven’t figured that out. There was a time when

6:14

New York Times Front Page Headline News

the rohn report ·

2021/10/07

One of my long time fantasies is to see a New York Times front page headline that says - ‘No More War’ or possibly ‘Love One another’ or maybe ‘May peace and harmony prevail’. It would be so radically strange and alarmingly different. Well it sort of happened recently with the publication of Tish Harrison Warren’s essay, ‘How I learned to shut up and be still’. Right there on the front page of the New York Times was a link which opened up to her story about self-reflection and how she learned to

6:21

seventy one

the rohn report ·

2021/09/30

So I just had my 71st birthday this week. Wow and I’m feeling it. I thought I was bullet proof. I would live to be 120. Not.When I was a young whippersnapper I thought I would live forever. Why not? Just cause everybody else died didn’t mean I would. Actually it was a rejoinder to my religious friends who wanted to make sure I was going to heaven. It doesn’t apply if you never die, right?That was ridiculous, of course, but so was the idea of going to heaven, like some kind of a Grand Hyatt

12:03

a passion for that feeling

the rohn report ·

2021/09/23

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I was traveling the world seeking adventure and whatever came my way. My destination was Israel, the Holy Land, for no other reason than I had stared at the full color maps of the ‘Holy Land’ in the back of the Bible while sitting bored in adult church service for (way too many) years of my life.I made my way there, over land and over sea and in the air and found myself in a kibbutz in the Jordan valley working in the fields as an unpaid but idealistic

7:48

in the back room

the rohn report ·

2021/09/16

So I’m thinking, gees, maybe I should be a little less philosophical and more funny like Garrison Keillor; talk about normal things not GOD and buffalos. I lost three subscribers after I published ‘GOD’.I’m sitting in the cafe reading Guy Noir stories (one of Garrison’s creations) from his Substack newsletter ‘Garrison Keillor and Friends’ and laughing quietly to myself so as not to annoy the other patrons. Guy Noir is the archetypical gumshoe private detective - Philip Marlowe style. It’s an

God

the rohn report ·

2021/09/09

Everybody believes in God, right? Most people do. I don’t. Not that one anyways. The super-hero God of the religions. The story book character God with super powers that we read about in the scriptures.And God slew the Minnownites. And God blessed Kajeeziel. And God created the earth and the universe and the light and the dark and then he rested because he was tired. God might be something but probably not our descriptions. That’s what I think. I mean if God is infinite, what are the