Power

I watched the PBS Frontline program on Biden earlier this week. it’s something of a rags to riches story telling how Biden saw John F. Kennedy’s rise when he was a teenager and decided to imitate it - in spite of not having the financial resources of his model. Both men had influential fathers. The irony of following a model that produced tragedy for both was all too real in this story. Death was always in the background of the climb to power.At one point we see Biden weeping as he watches his son Beau speaking at a convention as though he might be a future presidential candidate, but knowing what others didn’t - that the son would soon die of a brain tumor. It is not a surprise that the president has been seen as a healer since he had too many times to have to heal himself. It’s also not a surprise that the parents who lost their sons in the flight from Afghanistan resented it when Biden said that he knew who they felt at such a time of loss, then spoke about his son, not theirs.

When we’re down, we get up - the ongoing mantra - was a resolution that could help anything but the march of time. Power is attractive when we get it, and its not surprising that we want to keep it. But ultimately what we do with power speaks to our own agency. No one could push Biden out no matter how much they might have wanted to. Perhaps his finest moment should be the one when he made the painful choice to not get up, but to step down. He deserves some time to grieve the loss of something he spent most of his time preparing for. Coming out of that is a hope for a return of that amazing smile. Elders have a role as our indigenous brothers and sisters know.