Gladness And Sadness Over Joe Biden

        Sunday afternoon, July 21 (but was it really only the day before yesterday? Already it seems like weeks ago) I received a call from my daughter. 
       She answered my "Hi, Honey," with "Mom! You heard if from me first!"
​         "Heard what?" I said.
        "Heard what?" she said. "Mom, what's the news you've been waiting to hear and hoping to hear more than anything else in the world?"
     Now, I'll admit that in this family we have nothing if not a flair for hyperbole and the dramatic. Still, I wondered if I dared guess...
       "Has Joe Biden dropped out?"  I tremulously asked.
        My daughter's happy whoop gave me my answer and my joy-o-meter shot up until it rang the bell. 
       But it was only as long as it took for me to click open my phone and see the headline:   

...and the picture:

...before my elation was deflated, and all the aggravation, all the frustration I'd felt for the past few weeks over Biden's refusal to step down from the Presidential race - the same aggravation and frustration shared by millions of other Americans - melted away and was replaced by a rush of sadness and affection for him.
       Now Joe Biden was no longer the stubborn old man who refused to leave when it was time, but the man who had given a life of service to his country, soldiered on through personal sorrows, and, as President, shepherded the country back from an economically debilitating pandemic while pushing through an ambitious agenda that brought improvements in infrastructure, technology, public safety, and healthcare.
​        He was a  leader who, armed with his conscience, took on the challenges of a turbulent, war-torn, crisis-ridden world while at home fighting a hostile Congress whose members were pledged, not to the welfare of our country, but to the whims and wishes of a would-be American dictator. ​

      And now, with this news that Joe Biden was leaving the presidential race, glad as I was to hear the news, I felt sorry that it had to be this way. Not sorry that Biden was leaving - because he did have to, it was past time - but because of the grief and sense of loss that he was suffering over it. And, while mixed in with  hope and anticipation, my own sense of grief and loss for him.
          While roaming through the news outlets I came across this video commentary by CNN commentator Van Jones, in which Jones gave an emotional speech on Biden's decision to drop out.      

    Here's the link to the video:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/21/politics/video/van-jones-reaction-joe-biden-exits-2024-election-digvid
     For me, Van Jones's words say it all. Maybe they say it all for you, too.