Beautiful things are fleeting if not safeguarded

Adulting is hard, harder for some than for others. On the outside looking in, seeing nothing but privilege, judgement comes easy. It’s hard to fathom promise that never matches expectations, a knife felt most keenly by it’s owner. Beautiful things can be fleeting if not safeguarded. Hunter Biden’s memoir Beautiful Things is an instructive narrative on deriving strength from within the throes of human frailty. 

The nexus of Hunter’s lifetime struggles, through rehabs and every other taxing issue in his life, was the unconditional love, commitment, and active involvement of his supportive brother Beau, as well as that of his busy, otherwise occupied, extended family. Living life in the public eye, for some, makes recovery an impossible tightrope to successfully navigate over the infinite horizon of time, played out live beneath the unrelenting spotlight’s glare of global scrutiny. 

A failed marriage, the inability to repeatedly rise above one’s problems long enough to end them, the self imposed emotional exile, self loathing, and staggering loss of his brother comprised Hunter’s two ton rock, so hard to crawl out from under, reinforced by a litany of bad life choices resurfacing in the form of additional public humiliation with “laptopgate.” Mockery and derision amplified by opposing political forces with its accompanying media army, kept Hunter’s struggle front page news, albeit not in mainstream media. 

There is little interest in political diatribes, excuse making, or self justifications, but they are the human condition on display here at times. “I did nothing wrong, and I won’t do it again” holds no fascination. The merit in this book is witnessing and understanding the struggle and grip of addiction, for it is the struggle of so many, each story unique with common threads, and in this respect, the book has powerful value. Although a very personal memoir, Hunter also speaks for hundreds of thousands in this country prematurely permanently silenced by the ravaging, insatiable disease of addiction. We can learn there is great heroism in not giving up, especially in the context of a success obsessed, perfection preoccupied, conspicuous consumption driven society, incessantly regurgitated into the unreal patina of social media.

We are more than our addictions and failures, yet they seem to eclipse every right thing ever done. The courage to soldier on when so many root for failure, is not inconsequential. I don’t know what the future holds for Hunter, but I hope he never gives up fighting for lasting recovery, one day at a time. I hope he chooses persistence over relapse in the long run, if not for himself, for the sake of those who love him, his wife, children, nieces, nephews, extended family and friends, eschewing the legions of bloodsucking hater trolls. It’s not the easy choice, but it’s the choice Beau would want for him, and I hope someday he takes that motorcycle trip up the Pacific Coast Highway for both of them.