On the last stop of a 34-city book tour for her memoir Becoming, Michelle Obama celebrated Mother’s Day with a packed house at the Mother Church. Calling events at the Ryman “like church” might seem trite at this point, but it’s an apt description of the night.
Often referring back to passages in her Good Book when answering questions from The Late Show host Stephen Colbert, Obama described her journey from a being a kid in a black, working-class family on the South Side of Chicago to living in the White House. If you came into the evening having already read the book, the talk came off as a highlight reel of scenes you’ve already watched — still dynamic and powerful, but probably more impressive for those unacquainted with her stories.
It was much like when the preacher pulls out a sermon on Matthew 22:39 or 1 Corinthians 13: You might’ve heard something like it already, but it’s still going to be uplifting.
The program started by bringing five Nashville moms onstage — the mother of a special-needs child, Trisha Yearwood, CeCe Winans and two others. They all told the crowd who they were “becoming.” After a short video about Obama’s early life, she joined Colbert onstage — getting a standing ovation from maybe one of the loudest crowds I’ve ever heard at the Ryman.
Obama started by talking about her mother and children, who were all in attendance. They’d flown in to Nashville to surprise her on Mother’s Day. After Colbert joked that people were missing Game of Thrones to see her, Obama admitted that her youngest daughter Sasha told her before the show: “You know I love you because I’m missing Game of Thrones.”
Obama talked parenting, saying her mother often said she “wasn’t raising babies, she was raising children,” and that her mother didn’t want to suffocate her daughter’s fierceness.
“You have to get your ego out of parenting,” Obama told the audience, adding a bit about how often black children are taught to be “seen and not heard.”
Her mother worked against that, and so did she, she said.
About halfway through her talk, Colbert announced a surprise — Barack Obama outdid every dad in the building. He’d taped a special Mother’s Day message to be played for her at the show.
Colbert and Obama joked about the “51” Democrats running for president, and Colbert wondered whether any spouses had reached out to her for advice — a few have, she said, but she noted that you never know who will or won’t take your advice.
“I told the American people [in the 2016 election] what we needed in a president, and I was really clear about that,” she said.
At the end of the discussion, Colbert asked what she planned to do after her book tour. The crowd started chanting “president” and she quickly shut them down.
“If you read the book, you will know why I will never be president,” she said.
Though she might not want to be president, she said she is convinced we can still love our neighbors and that if we're kind to one another and have a little patience, things just might turn around.
“It’s not always about inspiration,” Obama said. “We can’t afford to be cynical. We have a chance to change things and I’m waiting to see what we do, but I remain hopeful.”
