Dear President Biden,
I sure hope you’re holding up ok and that you’re taking some breaks, getting some exercise, eating well and all that good stuff because the job(sssssss….) before you are massive. I imagine that long ago you mastered the art of balancing self-care with full-on service, but just in case you need a reminder, the old instruction to put the oxygen mask on yourself before helping others with theirs is a good one to keep front and center.
I also hope that you got one or two of the chocolate chip cookies that Dr. Jill brought to the National Guard troops this afternoon. Hearing about that lovely, kind, sweet gesture got my tear ducts welling up in a verklempt sort of way. Then when I read the AP report about how she did that after she visited with staff at Whitman-Walker Health, which serves people with HIV/AIDs and the LFBTQ+ community, she took up permanent residence in my heart. My goodness you all are coming through for US and it’s only day two and a half.
I’m going to try not to throw shade on the last occupants of the White House too often, but I can no more imagine Melania delivering chocolate chip cookies to anyone than I can imagine her flying solo to the moon. Such a generous, thoughtful gesture would never occur to her. And, if I’m being honest, it would never have occurred to me either – at least not before I learned of Dr. Jill’s delivery. When I do my (very) brief sitting meditation in the mornings I say good morning to the universe and to all the teachers I’ll be encountering during the day. I know she’s a teacher, but I still hadn’t expected to count Dr. Jill among them but here we are. I’m now 100% positive that she’ll continue to be a wonderful teacher to US all as we get to know her better and as she has the opportunity to rise to various future occasions.
Earlier this evening I told my partner, Laura, that while it would probably be horrifying, infuriating, and incredibly depressing, I would like to be a fly on the wall in the meeting rooms where your task force is dealing with all things Covid-19. In thinking about the situation that you all inherited from Trump et al., the analogy that seems apropos is that of a house that a bunch of people trashed AND that was left riddled with booby-traps. In other words, I’m worried that while there are obvious ways that the previous administration failed to do what was needed to address Covid-19, that there are sneaky, devious, hidden ways that they purposely compromised the system.
It must be awful walking such a precarious tightrope between telling US the truth about the unconscionable catch-up that you all are doing to combat Covid-19 while trying not to further alienate Trump supporters – we need them to get vaccinated too and many of them are already exceedingly skeptical of the seriousness of the situation or that there’s even a situation at all. I spoke with someone recently who absolutely believes that the whole thing is a scam perpetrated by the “deep state” communist-infiltrated Democratic party intended to control the populace. I wish this person were the odd duck anomaly, but I’m afraid they aren’t. You so correctly have stressed that you’re everyone’s president, which of course means that somehow you have to do your best to build bridges and trust with folks like this person. For all our sakes, I pray you are successful.
May we all be safe from malign conspiracy theories.
May we be happy to be generous with one another through lots of cookies and love.
May we maintain trust in the truth and know that we’re stronger when we keep it in sight.
May we accept that some of US are blinded by lies and that we must still find ways to bring them along.
Sincerely,
Tracy Simpson
The Biden Letters 