When former US president Joe Biden acknowledged his cancer diagnosis in a statement on social media, he included a photograph with his wife, Jill. Together, they thanked members of the public for their words of support and uplift, and expressed their resolve, noting “we are strongest in the broken places.” It’s a sentiment he’s shared before when he talks of national unity and massive tragedy.

Joe Biden announced on social media that he has prostate cancer.Credit: Facebook

But this is not a test in the face of a sweeping disaster. It’s a much smaller, more human scale. Does the country have the capacity for empathy – empathy without qualification – in spite of the rancour, the distrust, the alternative facts, the lies? In spite of everything?

Biden’s personal message about his cancer consisted of only three brief sentences. His post-presidency office had issued a lengthier announcement earlier that described his health in more detail, telling the public that he had an aggressive form of prostate cancer and that it had spread to his bones. The statement read as dire, but it offered a bit of light. There were options for “effective management”.

In the former president’s social media note of thanks, he was pictured sitting next to his wife as she leans into him. He was looking down towards the camera with a toothy smile. Jill Biden’s expression was sober.

There was a lot layered into that image of the couple. The angle of the photograph suggests that it might have been a selfie, with all of its implications of intimacy. The message is that it was simply the two of them alone in that room aside from Willow, the grey cat that the former first lady cuddled in her arms. But neither the president nor the first lady is looking directly at the viewer.........

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