2 women, 2 books

I've read two books with the word becoming in the title, both by women.

Becoming a Dangerous Woman

I used to watch Pat Mitchell on Boston TV and every now and then thereafter she would pop up as a producer, director, CEO, etc. Her story is more than a success story of a little girl from Georgia who ended up traveling the world and shaping attitudes toward women.  It is laced with the doubts that many women face. 

Am I good enough? 

Do I dare to do this? 

When she dared, she succeeded often to her own surprise. She admits her failures and where she didn't understand important actions.

The book is not just about Pat. She interviews some powerful women who have made a difference in other women's lives. They too have doubts making them like the rest of us.

Becoming Michelle Obama

Forget Michelle Obama was First Lady. This could be a story of any woman. 

What do I mean since most women aren't first ladies? 

Being raised in a tight knit family, she propelled herself into earning two degrees from top universities and a career. When she realized after years of study she hated being a corporate lawyer because it lacked meaning. Fighting doubts and fears of change, she found helping people do better gave her life what she was missing.

Her love for her family, her daughters, her husband, who sometimes drove her to distraction, juggling work and job is not that different from most women who are trying to be both June Cleaver and Mary Tyler Moore. She feels the same pain that any of us feeling losing a beloved father and has a husband that sometimes sends her into a rage. She knows her marriage needs commitment and it isn't just her husband that needs to change.

I am not going to write a book called Becoming Me. But like Pat and Michelle, I came from a middle class background, was much loved and encouraged. I fought my way through university and built a career that I was proud of. 

If Pat Mitchell was so in awe of meeting Bob Redford, I am still amazed that Mary Robinson talked to me 20 minutes more that scheduled then introduced me to her husband later the same week. 

If Pat and Michelle regularly talked to many world leaders, that I had a chance to interview Lech Walesa and Vicente Fox seemed events to come from the land of the impossible, freak events. 

These happenings don't define me. My insane love for my daughter is no different than Michelle's for Malia and Sasha and those relationships are more important than publishing books or roaming the world. 

Like Pat I found my soul mate late in life. Michelle found hers earlier. Yet, all three of us have had the fortune to be loved and to love a good man. 

Like Pat and Michelle I will fight for causes I believe in, but my voice does not have the echo-power they do. Still, I add mine to the din of humanity calling for a better world, content that the Pats and the Michelles of the world can draw on their prestige to lead us.