Becoming

5.1.20

One of my coping strategies for the Covid-19 quarantine has been to listen to Michelle Obama read her autobiography Becoming on Audible. I walk with Michelle, I do puzzles to the sound of her measured storytelling, and I bake bread and feel steadied during the crazy spring. Not only do her stories remind me what leadership feels like but the recitation of her values, expressed calmly as a guide to her life, gives me hope… yes, that hope… that our better natures can prevail.

I’m almost to the end of the book and was heartened to see that Netflix is releasing a documentary this week (May 6) about the book tour that followed after her runaway bestseller. Camera crews that followed her around as she met with Americans, and it has been cut together by director Nadia Hallgren, with help from Mrs. Obama.