Along with so many others, I was devastated Wednesday by the news that Elizabeth Edwards' cancer has metastasized. I was unable to watch the press conference live, but when I got back to my office and read the email from the campaign the words "no longer curable" hit me harder than I ever expected.
The campaign continues, and you can bet it is because Elizabeth and John decided that walking away is simply not an option. She has a finite amount of time left, and this is how she has chosen to spend it. Elizabeth Edwards wants to make it count - and she will. It's a breathtaking act of selflessness, certainly, to commit what will sadly be her dying years to trying to change this country for the better - through the campaign, and perhaps, in the White House.
I have occasional doubts about John Edwards, but I have never had similar reservations about Elizabeth. Listening to and reading her words were part of my own political awakening in 2003, and my excitement about Edwards' candidacy was due in large part to my enthusiasm to see her in the White House as well.
In the past few days, the two questions I keep hearing are "What about the kids?" and "Can we ask a man to be President AND care for his dying wife?" The first question isn't worth a response. As parents who lost a son, it would be inhuman to assume they would ever do anything but put their children first.
As for John, should he set aside his campaign and his possible presidency to be with and care for his wife? We can never know, but I would bet almost anything that if she asked him to walk away, he would do it in a heartbeat.
And then it hit me: Elizabeth Edwards is not putting her husbands career above her health. She just forced him - consciously or not - to become the most morally grounded presidential candidate this country has seen in a long, long time. Maybe ever.
John Edwards has no choice but to rise into this moment. He isn't just a candidate anymore, with policy positions to be negotiated and triangulated. After 30 years of marriage, this campaign must reflect an integrity and a vision worthy of his dying wife. His presidency must exhibit a moral leadership worthy of her memory, of serving as her legacy.
To those who are about to accuse me of being unfeeling, let me assure you I am not. I have tears in my eyes as I write this, thinking not only of the years ahead for their family, but also of my best friend's mother who died of cancer two year ago. Her death changed us all, but the changes started long before she died - it took hold the moment we realized she would eventually be gone. She, like Elizabeth, was the type of woman we all looked up to and learned from. She was the type of woman who made an entire community richer for her presence, whose expectations of my potential made me want to live up to what she saw in me.
God willing, Elizabeth Edwards has many, many years ahead and would ultimately survive two terms in the White House. With luck, good health, and medical advances, I can only hope that she will see her children graduate from college. May she be there for their weddings.
But if you think for one minute that she and John aren't acutely aware that they may not have nearly that much time, I promise you are wrong. You hope and you fight, but every day is suddenly more precious.
In the end, his campaign will now be driven forward by that knowledge. I hope he will be forced to be even more true to himself as this race continues, and I think he will.
Every moment matters, and if those moments are to be spent running for president, then we're in for one hell of a campaign. May this serve as a reminder for all of us that life is precious, that it is constantly necessarily to fight for the things we believe in...
I can't pretend to know how John Edwards or his campaign will be transformed by this new knowledge, only that in some way it will be.
"Tomorrow Begins Today." How eerily prescient that now seems, somehow.
Someday is no longer good enough. We do not have time to be complacent.
No matter which candidate you personally support for 2008, no matter what cause or issue gets you out of bed in the morning... May we all strive to be worthy of the time we are given. And with the time we do have, may we work to change America for the better.
Tomorrow begins today.
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