The sense that we lost our country had been overwhelming before the current crisis. Painfully obvious almost immediately upon occupying the White House, it’s clear that Trump is never going to rise to the occasion. If anything, not rising to the occasion is pretty much the whole point to everything Trump. Republicans have been promising to take a sledgehammer to everything that doesn’t protect straight white male privilege at least since Richard Nixon and while they’ve nibbled at the edges for decades, in Trump they found their champion. For me, it’s been a very long 3 ½ years of going to bed depressed every night, and waking up depressed every morning. Now that we’re on track to bury 50,000 Americans every month while Trump tries to convince enough voters that the healthcare threat is done and time to get back to business — well, it’s taking depression to a whole ‘nother level.
Of course, we know that there is good in our country. Millions of Americans are working every day to get us through COVID-19. They’re doing so despite the best efforts of the Trump Administration to drag them down, impede them and belittle them while Trump tries to gaslight the rest of us. We’re also seeing consistent polling showing that most Americans aren’t buying Trump’s nonsense. The paths to the White House and Senate look increasingly good.
But what I really needed — but didn’t realize until seeing it — was Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” (streaming now on Netflix). You know her story but hearing from her directly, seeing her family, watching her lifting up students — it was the instant cure to my blues that I needed. I compare seeing it even after reading the book as: you know it’s spring because of the calendar and the days are getting longer but you don’t really feel it until you look outside and see a sudden burst of daffodils and tulips.
As a film, “Becoming” moves along briskly as it touches on all the keystones of the First Lady’s life — from childhood to college to meeting Barack to the White House and her book tour. She’s takes us back to the highs and the lows of the Obama years — including a single day that has the lowest low and the highest high. We see moments from her book tour including on-stage interviews with Oprah, Gayle King and Stephen Colbert. Particularly uplifting are Mrs. Obama’s meetings with young students; echoing today’s concerns about what the future holds, these are good reminders that we all have questions and doubts — and the best way forward is to simply keep on doing the next right thing.
If the daily news wears you down — it certainly wears me down — I wholeheartedly recommend a break by spending a little time with the woman who is the best that America has to offer.