My Philosophy

I have an opinion that I don't know if everyone agrees with. It is my philosophy. Yesterday something happened that got me thinking about this. Here is the story. I got an email from Ryan. He said that he had some bad news but that we would get a letter from him today and he would explain. Well, it kind of ruined the day for me. I was a little sick with worry. Had he been hurt? Had he had another accident? Was he being moved out of the area when it wasn't transfers and he loves this area? Had he had a problem with members or an investigator? I could think of a whole basket full of bad news. I stewed about this all the way home. Sure enough his letter was in the mail. I opened it right on the spot. I didn't wait until I got in the house. He wrote a three-page letter and saved the "bad news" for the very last. He got a speeding ticket. He was going 42 in a 30 mph zone. He was very repentant. He felt very bad. He said the really bad news was that he had to pay for the ticket and he hated to put that burden on us. He said he was going to scrimp on money to make up for it. Well, you cannot imagine how thrilled I was to hear that he got a ticket. In fact I was delighted. I wanted to dance a jig. It was so much better than the alternatives I had cooked up. So when Rocky got home I told him that Ryan had some bad news to tell us in his letter. He didn't have as long to stew over it, but it worked just the same. He was so relieved to hear the "bad news" just as I was. Now for my philosophy. If you have some news you want to tell and you don't want someone to frown at you for it, just prepare them ahead of time and give them time to think about it. Well, I guess that works if your news isn't really "bad" news. But I am starting to think this son of mine is one smart guy. You can't help but love him.