The Manifestation of Older to Elder: The Transformation of Joe Biden

Preface:
This essay is my view; therefore, it is not "the" truth. It is how I see the world. Given that it is conceptual, not tangible, you can take it or leave it. You are always the gatekeeper and the bouncer of what you believe.

My view is based on my work transitioning people from older to elder. That's what I do in the world. That's who I am. With my background, I am pointing to a phenomenon I witnessed based on my understanding and direct experience as an elder.

The purpose of this essay is to present an interpretation to explain an observed phenomenon, the transformation from older to elder.

The physical evidence is undeniable. Just look at the before-and-after pictures in the header.

Framing It Up:
Transformation is a process of profound change that fundamentally alters the nature, function, or condition of something or someone. In this transformation, the “someone” is Joe Biden, and then all the "somethings" changed.

Biden's transformation from older to elder involved a mammoth shift in mindset, beliefs, values, and behaviors, leading to a new way of experiencing and engaging with himself and his world.

His transformation occurred on all planes—mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, and relational. Everything changed—all at once. A "big bang" occurred, and a new universe was born.

Joe Biden was pinched into the culture's classic "older." Hey Joe, it isn't personal.

That's ageism. Ageism is real, pervasive, insidious, persistent, and prevails in our culture. Everywhere, all the time, embedded and worsening.

If you're fortunate enough to grow old, you'll inevitably encounter ageism. It's a cultural constant. In our Western culture, being old is equated with being obsolete. As the pace of change quickens, obsolete increasingly means useless, outmoded, expired, and discardable.

When you get old, you’ll experience discrimination. You’re believed to be pricey in time and money with no ROI. Your middle-aged kids, the neighborhood, the city, the state, the healthcare system, and the economy see you as a problem.

The language of discrimination is "prejudice." Prejudice is a preconceived opinion, judgment, or attitude about a group that is not based on reason, facts, or actual experience.

Prejudice entails shaping opinions and beliefs about others without knowing them or understanding their circumstances. Our culture harbors entrenched preconceptions about aging, degrading biases rock-solid in place.

These preconceived opinions, beliefs, and assessments about aging are the very source of why older people are marginalized, segregated, isolated, and, finally, warehoused.

The notion that aging, a natural and unstoppable process, is perceived as unwelcome and needs to be overcome is a classic oxymoron.

The Transformation
Biden didn't stand a chance against ageism’s bias, stereotyping, irrationality, and negativity. His political exposure as president invited and received a mega-wallop of ageism.

Even with his heart, experience, wisdom, and heroic legislative achievements, he had zero chance of changing the storyline.

As the protagonist of this story, he quickly went from asset to liability.

When you face an unmoveable issue that can't be reformed, like ageism, you must choose between forfeiting, fighting, or changing.Biden realized that continuing to resist and fight would keep the issue stuck and make it even worse. He saw that his resistance caused persistence. It was getting ugly for everybody.

He became wide awake to the reality of the truth: "I am old." There was no more denial, no more self-deception. All his political and conventional wisdom, those 50 years of experience and service, carried absolutely no weight. Biden found himself in the "dark night of the soul."

Biden realized that clinging desperately to his past, grasping to remain who he wanted to be, had no standing. He stopped just listening but now heard—trusted voices finally landing.

Biden stopped averting, resisting, rationalizing, and defying. Acceptance was his first existential step in moving from older to elder. He had to give in and give up, surrender to the "what's so.”

The insight struck. For Biden, the choice was clear—a choice that altered his perception of himself and the rest of his world. A choice fostered by insight, revelation, expanded consciousness, and genuine self-awareness. “I am old. I am seen as infirm, feeble, and weak.”

He had to get the old self out of the way.

Now, higher wisdom bubbled up. He saw who he needed to be and what he needed to do. He saw that his values, principles, and higher purpose were far more important than being right. He was built for the higher road.

In that moment of insight, the caterpillar turned into a butterfly; older became elder.

Biden was able to put the Headstone on who he had been.

Looking back, Biden realized that he had gone through the stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and now, finally, acceptance. He mourned his former life’s death and affirmed that it was history. He stopped grieving for what “should be " and accepted “what is.” And he also recognized who he needed to be in the future.

And now, the person looking at the Tombstone of who he had been was a wise, benevolent, faith-based, and values-driven man —someone who cared about future generations and had compassion and empathy for his party, the planet, and people’s suffering. It wasn’t about the old Joe anymore.

President Biden was now living Christopher Logue’s poem "Come to the Edge.":

Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It's too high! Come to the edge!
And they came, and he pushed,
And they flew.

Biden flew: age to sage, conventional wisdom to higher wisdom, resistance to surrender, righteousness to rightfulness, self to service, protective to trusting, blame to responsibility, defiance to dignity, grit to grace; it was all there. Biden transformed from older to elder.

Dr. Marc Cooper
Founder. Teacher. Benefactor.
The Contemporary Elder Institute www.requestingwisdom.com
Author - Older to Elder www.drmarcbcooper.com
LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/drmarcbcooper/

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