President Joe Biden takes the stage to speak at the 115th NAACP National Convention in Las Vegas on July 16.Susan Walsh/The Associated Press
Ken Dryden’s most recent book is The Class: A Memoir of a Place, a Time, and Us.
We almost always get it wrong.
Not just athletes who have lost a step or two, but maintain the hunger to be great. Or singers who can no longer hit the high notes. Or actors or writers who can’t bring themselves to stop. They are just the visible ones. Inside corner offices and classrooms it’s no different. The early years of promise, the middle years of achievement, but then, at some moment for all of us, there comes a time.
We say we’ll be the first to know when we can no longer do it. We aren’t. Others are. Those we work with and work for. They may not notice at first, then they may think it’s no big deal. That it’s temporary, it’ll pass. But it isn’t, and doesn’t.
Then comes the tough part.
What to do, what to say? In the end, it all seems to come down to loyalty. Loyalty to that person. Loyalty from that person to you. Loyalty to the job you’re all doing. Loyalty to the pride you all feel in doing it right.
What happens when the whispers, when even the heart-to-heart talks are not enough? When the other person just doesn’t get it? Or refuses to get it?
They have a lifetime stake in what they are. They are proud of themselves and what they’ve done. They have a reputation. If something isn’t as it should be, they’ll do what they always did, and work harder, and fix it. Everyone knows that. They will do it. Not anyone else.
Then comes the tougher part.
Sometimes, in their renewed dedication, this works. They find renewed joy. Renewed energy. They become, in their own minds and in those of their supporters, “better than ever.” But it doesn’t happen often, or happen for long. They’re older. No amount of adapting – doing things differently, perhaps, or prioritizing better – is enough. The slipping continues, the whispers increase, the goodwill runs thinner.
I didn’t know when it was time to stop playing hockey. I did know I wasn’t as good, that it wasn’t as much fun, that the best of my career seemed past. I knew, too, that I was one very small step away from a really bad decision. I had seen it happen with players in all sports who had stayed too long. It wasn’t only that the fans came to see them differently. They just looked so unhappy. They couldn’t do, or couldn’t find a way to do differently, what they had always done. They couldn’t be great any more. And the longer they tried, the more determined they became to prove wrong what was becoming an increasing number of people who said they couldn’t do it. Which made them try even harder, get even worse, look even more unhappy. The downward spiral picking up steam with nothing to stop it except humiliation and other bad things. If I had stayed even one more year, that would have happened to me. I got lucky.
In the recent debate between U.S. President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump, tens of millions of Americans saw live, and hundreds of millions more have seen since, what they now can’t unsee. This wasn’t a bad night, being overprepped or overtired or sick, as some suggested. It wasn’t his misstatements. They happen to everyone. It was the look in his eyes, the way his body moved. Age. A look and a manner that had been there all along, unmissable, except in those who chose not to see. A look that will be there next year, more and more, and the year after, and the year after that.
Mr. Biden’s inner circle, whoever they are, has done him no favours, though I’m sure they think they have. They haven’t done the Democratic Party, or the American people, any favours either.
This is the moment. Since the debate – in interviews, press conferences and campaign speeches – Mr. Biden has looked to portray himself as “never say die,” “for the good of the country,” “fightin’ Joe.” It hasn’t worked. It won’t work.
Now it’s time for a different Joe to show himself. For those who love him and support him, to love him and support him a different way. To tell him, you’ve done your job, Mr. President. When Donald Trump needed to be defeated in 2020, you did it. No matter what else you’ve done or will do in the future, that is your great achievement. Now your great achievement is to see Donald Trump defeated in 2024. You were the right person in 2020. Someone else is now.
It’s time to go.