Emotional Pathos - Joe Biden

There will probably be many moments on this blog when I talk about emotional connection.

Those moments when we transcend the different tribes that limit us and touch on something profoundly human, vulnerable, and beautiful.

As a male, I identified very strongly with this Joe Biden statement during the vice presidential debate:



"But the notion that somehow because I am a man I don't know what it's like to raise two kids alone, I don't know what its like to have a child you're not sure is going to make it, I understand, I understand."

Sometimes a man's entire life can be summed up in one moment.

Joe Biden did just that by reaching back to his childhood, and then commenting on the great success he has had as an adult and realizing that he has in many ways achieved beyond his wildest dreams - achieved by working hard and serving others - but even in that moment of achievement going deeper down to the underlying realness of "I understand" as Langston Hughes would say "life ain't been no crystal stair".

That just because he is a man doesn't mean he doesn't know what its like to raise two kids alone.

I think that sharing this story in a culture that routinely ignores and marginalizes fathers as fathers - was very powerful.

Being a good father is one of those things I aspire to be, if I ever have children. And I can't even imagine how hard it must be to be a single father, because frankly no one talks about the single father's - no one shares their stories.

It is always about single mothers (and for good reason!) but having Joe Biden up there almost in tears at the height of his career, his entire life up to this point, saying just because I am a man doesn't mean I don't understand, was a moment of emotional pathos.

Until next time, continue striving upward.