Prudence Doofus

Prudence. It's an underrated concept. I used to mock George Bush "the First" as a doofus for his seemingly incessant obeisance to this very simple idea: before you go into something, know how you're going to get out. In retrospect, what I wrote off as excuse-making now seems visionary. And as I've gotten older I've found myself applying the concept in many and varied situations. Sure, sometimes I probably end up looking like a doofus a la "George the First". But I've come to accept that inevitability as fair commerce for never looking like a doofus a la "George the Second".