“Fragile” is not a word we normally associate with America.

But fragile is where we are as we wake up on Inauguration Day.

Fragile like an egg: our economy, our sense of security, our national psyche.

Fragile like a trigger: insurrection fueled by anger and delusion. A pandemic spreading out of control.

Can we now admit that our presidents are fragile, too? The puffy brat with an ego made of glass who craved constant adulation and ignored the call to presidential duty is now headed to his new home. He leaves in his trail a terrifying reminder that when power itself becomes the goal, it ceases to function as a means for governance.

Now he is replaced by a statesman, who has developed a kind of inner fortitude from publicly navigating the fragility in his own life. He brings that experience onstage Wednesday morning — the humility that accompanies uncertainty, the empathy born of loss, the special balance one gains after stumbling in his own life and finding the resilience to stagger forward.

A man who so badly wanted […]