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Issue 11 – Trinity 2022

Features

Do It Again

On Mississippi.

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When my wife was expecting our first child, one activity we looked forward to was reading to our new son. Soon we found ourselves re-reading the short stories, children’s poems, and adventure tales that populated our own childhoods. Today, on the bookshelf sits a well-worn collection of Aesop’s Fables. Having read it many times with the boys, I now find myself recalling these stories and their morals even when I am in my law office working through a patent application or a trademark dispute.

When I think about the future of the battle against abortion following the overruling of Roe v. Wade, I recall two of Aesop’s fables in particular. Both involve thirsty birds—a rash pigeon and a thoughtful crow. In the first, the pigeon sees a basin of water in a painting. The pigeon, not realizing that the water is not real, hurriedly flies in to sip the water. He arrives with a loud stir, only to crash into the painting and fall to the ground with a broken wing. The moral: Zeal should not outrun discretion. In the second, a crow finds a pitcher of water on the ground, but the water level is too low and the neck too narrow for the crow to drink. Looking around, he spies several pebbles. He picks them up one by one and drops them into the pitcher, slowly raising the water level until at last the crow can quench his thirst. Little by little does the trick.


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About the author

Jake Neu

Jake Neu is a patent attorney in Nashville, Tennessee.