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The pressure for President Joe Biden to step aside in the upcoming campaign, allowing a younger (it is presumed) and healthier (it is hoped) candidate to take over for the Democrats, has intensified.

Every day -- every hour, lately -- more Democratic representatives and senators entreat him to pass the torch. The New Yorker recently published an article by Dr. Dhruv Khullar, a physician and assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, that said neurologists and other doctors are "increasingly worried" about Biden's health and his ability to manage even a campaign -- let alone a second term. The piece strongly suggested that Biden needs an assessment for a degenerative neurological condition. But no special expertise is required for concern: Americans saw for themselves in the first presidential debate how changed Biden appears to be compared to four years ago.

There is an almost unanimous appeal from liberals that he steps down, that he understands and accepts his decline. In our country, though, the acknowledgement of the finite nature of our being, even among the least powerful and wealthy among us, is vanishingly rare.

How can Biden, the leader of the free world, concede to time in a world that has forgotten completely how to do so?

There is no recent precedent for politicians' acceptance of their decline. Sen. Mitch McConnell and the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein refused calls to step aside, even in the face of clear diminishment. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley is a nonagenarian. Rep. Nancy Pelosi is 84 and she isn't even in the top five oldest members of the House of Representatives.

But it's more than just in politics: For evidence of our collective rejection of aging, you only need look at our faces. Few of us willingly accept gray hair, a lined brow, a cane, a visible hearing aid or reading glasses. Those who do are remarked upon and questioned -- "Wouldn't you rather, since you can, look younger?" -- and it is tantamount to Spartan bravery to reject all treatments in favor of your natural physical decline.

Medically, we also fight the natural progression of age. When our bodies are no longer young enough to easily perform certain tasks -- like conceiving babies, engaging in sexual activity and losing weight -- we are offered (and usually accept) all manner of help in overcoming our age-related obstacles.

Let it be known that I do not stand in judgment of anyone who accesses the miracles of modern medicine, when they're available. I used IVF to conceive both of my children and would happily do it all over again tomorrow, if given the choice.

It is, in many cases, even foolhardy to turn away from artificial extension of life and well-being in the name of a more "natural" progression. It is, after all, perfectly natural to go blind, to lose your teeth and to die from cancer.

I've also dealt with older parents whose understandable frustrations at their changing minds and bodies can hamper a sober assessment of their abilities. As children, we can sometimes be equally confused by our parents' aging.

These are complicated matters.

Ultimately, though, the battle against time loses its usefulness, and there is no guarantee of cosmic fairness.

It's not fair that the once-beautiful face wrinkles. It's not fair that the brilliant mind dulls. It's not fair that the vigorous body exhausts.

No matter how good we've gotten at pretending to be forever young, and at extending our lives long past the point that our ancestors would have thought possible, time will pass, and old age remains undefeated.

We are greedy, we humans, and want to cling to our gifts forever. But there is no endowment that time cannot and does not rescind. Acceptance of this harsh fact can be forced upon us by circumstance, or we can arrive at it of our own volition.

Now, I am not one to tell the president when he must find peace with that, or even that he should. This is his battle, and only he can decide when to lay down his arms.

He can take comfort, though, if he wishes, in knowing that his struggle is shared by all who grow old, all who die. In other words, it's a struggle shared by every human who has lived or who ever will do so. It's a struggle shared by us all.

To learn more about Georgia Garvey, visit GeorgiaGarvey.com.

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Copyright 2024 Creators Syndicate Inc.