Ryan Christopher Anderson

Today’s post is a bit different, but I hope you will read all the way to the end. I want to tell you about Ryan.

When we moved here, Ryan was one of the first ones in our house. Nearly from day one, he helped us get to know more about local news and places to shop and eat. Since we were not from Nashville, this was a huge help. He seemed to know everything about everything: local sports teams, restaurants, stores, churches…everything.

Sadly, from day one, Ryan also decided to drop a few bad words in his conversations, even when the kids were around. We tried to drop a few subtle hints not to do that, but Mr. Anderson just said, “That’s just me. Deal with it.” Since he was so helpful, we let it go, but it was quite embarrassing.

As the days rolled on, Ryan expanded his stories. He was, easily, the most knowledgeable and entertaining guest ever in our home. He was able to tell stories that were sometimes funny, sometimes dramatic, and sometimes tear-jerking. We listened to his stories almost every day, and Ryan’s ability to hold our attention was truly remarkable.

I must admit, as a preacher, I was jealous, because I try to hold people’s attention for just 25-30 minutes and seemed to fail more often than I succeeded. I tried to learn how to tell a story from Ryan, but he was just better at it.

Of course, with nearly every story he told, he dropped a few bad words. I’m embarrassed to say that we talked about confronting him, but we let him in day after day because we loved the stories and information. Thankfully, his language was tamer when the children around, but we noticed that they were starting to spout off a few choice words sometimes. As parents, we scolded and punished, but we knew where it was coming from, and we didn’t properly address the problem.

Finally, Ryan started bringing something to the house with him. When he came over, he started bringing a can of beer. He offered it to me. I refused, but didn’t have the guts to tell him not to bring it into my house. Also, he started staying later and telling longer stories. Mr. Anderson’s stories were amazing, but they were starting to effect other parts of our lives, due to their length, but also their language and attitude.

But they were so informative and entertaining!

We looked around one day, though, and realized that Ryan had basically taken over our lives. We had even rearranged our furniture to give him a chair we could all see so we could hear his stories night after night. Our sleep was less. We were putting out little fires with our kids’ language and attitudes.

So, one day, we finally stood up to Ryan.

But I will bet he still has a place in your house, and probably controls more of your life that you’d like to admit.

He is Ryan Christian Anderson.

R.C.A.

He was our television.

QUESTION: What is your reaction to this story? How can we improve?

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Photo credit: Heather Elias on Creative Commons

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