Abundance of Caution

The White House press release yesterday on the cancellation of VP Mike Pence's political rallies in Florida and Arizona cited, "an abundance of caution." First responders asked, "just what sort of person would attend a Mike Pence rally?"

I had to press 'Accept Cookies" to read the press release on the VP's website, which I did with an abundance of caution, turning the phrase 'abundance of caution' around in my mind, examining it from every angle I could think of, concluding it had a Biblical ring that must have sounded really good to the VP, a Christian man.  I had to agree with VP Pence for the first time in my life that the time calls for both abundance and caution, one cannot have too much of either, and to link one with the other was a master-stroke of PR 101. And yet had I been the phrase-maker I would have worked the language a little differently, cited my deep personal belief in cautious abundance, stated how sorry I was to cancel the rallies but was doing so while being abundantly cautious, or cautiously abundant, expecting much good fruit to fall as the result of my wise, morally correct decision, as it always does to those who pray.

Dick Cheney, VP from a previous gentler, kinder administration, made a public appearance this weekend, wearing an abundant mask, "keeping the country safe," as he liked to say upon the invasion of Iraq in 2003, "with respect to the terrorists." Franz Kafka posted it on his Facebook page where it received over 2 million 'likes.'

Meantime the EU, practicing an extreme abundance of caution, banned American travelers, in spiteful retribution for our revolution of 1776. The American airline industry is vowing to take the matter to the Supreme Court--ugh!

Why does the Supreme Court, the very notion of it, drive me to such abundant despair? The robes, the fake smiles of the jurists as they sit having a group portrait taken, the feeble attempts to achieve social stablitly in the guise of righteous justice, the ersatz permanence...I despise each person on the court, each 'justice' equally, whether they be conservative or liberal, feminine or masculine, for a truly just person would never take the appointment. This is a pagan, pre-Christian judgment, admittedly, but one I'm cautiously confident of in the full effulgence of my very own abundance. 

Still Life, with broom, throw rug, door. Photo by author.