‘Are They Old Enough?’

By Joni Halpern

Almost everyone is talking about Joe Biden’s age.  Is he too old to serve as President again?  Did you see him stumble?  Did you hear him mix up his words?  Look how stiffly he walks.

Biden is old, but there’s another question to be asked of all the younger persons running:  Are they old enough to know how to run a world power?

Maybe they have silver tongues and limber bodies, quick minds and spring in their step, but do they know how to identify what is important to the security and health of this country and its place in the world?  Have these younger persons demonstrated they can bring about consensus in an environment of monumental egos and global ambitions?

Youth is beautiful in nearly all its manifestations. It is daring, adventurous, and innovative.  It is a lovely state of life.  We need our young people, for they are our future.

But there are certain gifts that age brings to the wise.

It is true that not everyone who grows old is wise.  There are plenty of people who have lived seven decades and beyond who remain unschooled by their own education and experience, let alone by that of others.

But some old people, like Joe Biden, have learned how to recognize the rising swells and currents that must be carefully navigated to avoid foundering the vessel of life, whether that life refers to an individual or to that of the nation as a whole.

While old people may not be as creative or quick, they have other gifts that can be important to Americans as we lay the foundation for our future.  Old age does not leave every person without mental facility.  Even science admits this, for recent studies indicate that the “executive function” of the brain may improve in some important respects in old people.

While it might take longer for old people to learn new things, their ability to orient their attention to new developments, and to focus on tasks without being distracted, often improves.  In the chaos of political life and global events, these qualities can be critical for a world leader.

Like many other old people, Biden has a world of experience.  Lucky for us, he has it in the legislative and executive branches of our federal government —  the very places where newcomers often stumble badly because they are too naïve to recognize or confront the powerful forces of manipulation at work in the corridors of power.

Biden was in the U.S. Senate for 36 years, serving on key committees dealing with intensely complicated issues.  He sometimes made mistake, but he learned how to navigate the labyrinth of personalities, many driven by relentless ambition, insatiable egos, or lust for power.  He learned that criticizing his colleagues’ motivations was counter-productive and that in order to get things done, he had to restrict the battleground to policy solutions that could deliver a taste of victory to a majority of high-powered combatants.  He had to learn when criticism was intractable and when it could yield to compromise, when it had to be confronted, and when merely endured.

Like many old people, Biden has experienced great loss.  He knows loss can occur in every aspect of our lives – our time, money, resources, jobs, personal belongings, and loving relationships.  He knows some of these losses are beyond our control, but we are better able to avoid them if we are informed of possible outcomes.

Biden has shown a respect for the expertise of scientists, military leaders, financial authorities, and other specialists from whom he seeks truthful information before addressing solutions.  It’s the same thing we all learn to do in life as we age.  The recklessness and adventurism of youth, which is its own source of vitality to a nation, gives way as we age to a desire to avoid an impetuous move that can transform positive potential into failure and make bad situations worse.

Biden is old enough to know that the development of anything in life takes time.  As speedily as life goes by, everything happens in its own time.  Youth, on the other hand, is in a hurry.  Old people are more accepting that time has its own rhythm.  They are more likely to have noticed that everything worthwhile thing we make happen in life takes more time than everyone thought it would, whether we are building a bridge, making a close friend, creating an enduring marriage, raising a good kid, or tending to the ambitions of a mighty nation.

Biden is old enough to understand that everyone has value.  Sometimes their value is in illustrating a problem that affects us as a nation.  Sometimes it is in proposing or implementing solutions.  Even if the proposals are faulty or born of hostility, dealing with them can help us articulate more precisely the kind of outcomes we want and how we can achieve them.

Like many people who have grown old, Biden seems to understand that everyone is a mixture of feelings and attitudes, virtues and vices, illusions and realities.  He seems disinclined to categorize everyone who disagrees with him as an idiot or partisan.  He seems to believe that with all of us working together, we can create shared solutions even to the gigantic challenges we face, whether they originate from the majestic force of Mother Nature or from the pace of technological, global, and economic change.

Biden may be old, but he is not without gifts that this country needs.

As a nation, we are not known for being patient, thinking things through, or listening to those who disagree with us.  We have a long history of suspicion toward any expertise that arises from study.  We prefer a shouting match with people we disagree with, rather than patient discussion that involves shared truths and verified information.  The “cowboy” still lives in us; we kind of enjoy the barroom brawl where we toss aside our socialized instincts and beat the stuffing out of people we have labeled as devoid of virtue.

There will be a massive effort in the weeks and months to come to depict Biden’s age as his greatest weakness.  But focusing on his faltering tongue or stiff gait may leave us blind to other gifts he possesses because he is old.  These gifts may give us the respite we need to  prepare our country for the next generation of younger leaders.