Good news and bad news

My wife told my granddaughter, Morgan, on the phone yesterday, "I have good news and bad news, which do you want first?"

I knew immediately that Morgan would ask for the bad news (one of the buildings in the Fairy village was ruined by the rain) instead of the good news (the rest of the village was fine).

I thought I was thinking the way Morgan thinks: bad news first, then the good to overcome it.

I mentioned all that to Bern today and she said she thought almost everyone would ask for the 'bad news' first to get it out of the way and hope the 'good news' would make up for it.

I'm not sure about that. I think I would ask for the 'good news' first, delaying the pain.

And I know for sure, if Bern were right, one of my favorite jokes would be destroyed.

The phone rings in the Vatican and a bishop answers it.

"Oh my," he says. And then he says, "Oh,no!"

The Pope asks what's going on.

"Your Holiness," the bishop says, "there's good news and bad news. Which do you want first?"

"The good news," the Pope says.

"Jesus has come back to earth!" the bishop tells him.

"The Second Coming?" the Pope responds with ultimate joy. "What could the bad news be?"

The bishop replies, "he's calling collect from Salt Lake City...."

I've often wanted to change the punch line of that joke to say, "he's calling collect from Canterbury", just because I'm an Anglican--but it wouldn't be as funny.

Which do you ask for first--the good news or bad news? Ponder what that is telling you about yourself. Ponder that, I invite you.