a more onerous citizenship: biden

Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place.

Whether you liked Joe Biden or not, it takes a particular kind of person to exploit his health for profit. To every journalist writing books, every person in the White House administration and/or Trump family commenting on his well-being, what’s wrong with you? He’s a private citizen, and he’s dealing with cancer. And, dealing with cancer is tough.

I can only write with real authority on my own experience. I’ll tell you that when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, all I heard was “you’re going to die.” I was devastated. How could I be the 1 in 9 of my friends? What had I done wrong? These are the irrational questions I asked myself. Obviously I didn’t die. But I cried a lot. I was scared a lot. I worried a lot. Mostly, I worried about my daughter and my husband and how life would be for them without me in it.

At the time, I also had a job. I was a pro. As such, I compartmentalized the way professionals do. I went to work every day. I gave it my all and when the time came to step away from it, I did. Were some people cruel to me? Sure. In ways that honestly took my breath away. But through surgeries and recovery and all of that, my circle of friends and family was there for me. I’m forever indebted to them.

Unlike Joe Biden, I didn’t have to deal with media coverage tearing into every detail of my health every day. My breast cancer diagnosis didn’t make the headlines – nor should it. Nor should Biden’s cancer. Biden is no longer in the White House but his successor is there and it seems to me the main story should be his fitness for office.

While Biden and millions of people we’ll never hear about are dealing with cancer, the Trump administration is punishing them – cutting funding for life-saving research, deporting kids with cancer, threatening their benefits. And somehow Biden is the main story? Come on now.

To anyone on “the night-side,” may you find compassion and comfort there.