Mika Brzezinski, 42, is the smart and peppery co-host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and the recent author of “All Things at Once,” a memoir of her journey from a life on overdrive to a wiser life better balanced. She spoke with The Examiner about the lessons she has learned, often with great pain, and a strong faith that has carried her and shaped her since childhood. Brzezinski will be speaking at 7 p.m. on Wed., Jan. 13 at Politics and Prose bookstore (5015 Connecticut Ave. NW) along with her on-air partner Joe Scarborough.
Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?
I am a Catholic. I appreciate the rules, but also the forgiveness. Although the rules are so controversial to so many people, through them the religion challenges us to be the best that humanity can offer — to really love thy neighbor, and to try to be Christlike in every decision. My parents took us to church every Sunday, and being in a Catholic church still feels like home to me, no matter where I am in the country or in the world.
Did anyone or any event especially influence your faith or your path in life?
My parents, certainly, and the ritual of church, and the ritual of holidays that are especially important — Easter services, and Christmas. And I believe that my faith can drive me to be the person who my grandmother always wanted me to be — a good person who wants to accomplish things to help other people. She was my best friend — Emilie Benes — she was Czech. She spoke 11 languages, and she taught me French. For several years she lived next door to us, and with us, and I spent a lot of time visiting her in Florida. She was such an inspiration to me every day — she believed in me unconditionally, unequivocally. She knew things about me that I didn’t even know — and she had known them since I was two! It’s very hard to find someone who is completely and unequivocally behind you — and she was.
In your book, you remind readers that perfection is a myth. Allowing for that, what have you decided cannot be compromised, either at work or in your personal life? Where ought we be perfectionists, after all?
Your heart should be in the right place. I put a lot of things out there that are controversial — about parenting, about careers. And I do that with the knowledge that there are people out there who know where my heart is. On the Internet, I’m being ripped apart — people are questioning my parenting, they’re questioning my womanhood. But I know who I am, and my children, and my husband, and people close to me know where my heart is. You can’t get perfection, but if within yourself you have an angle that is not honest or selfish, the people closest to you will know that. Knowing who you are is the most important thing.
You describe being fired from a dream job (as a CBS correspondent and anchor), and a near-fatal accident from exhaustion when you fell down a flight of stairs with your newborn. You’ve come back to maintain a successful career. What drives your work ethic?
I would not want this job if I didn’t have children to share it with, and that’s what drives me. I’m looking now at pictures of them, of notes they’ve written to me, funny things they’ve said, and I wonder what would all of what I do mean without them in my life? My work cultivates my own identity, and ultimately cultivates my family. My children drive me completely.
At your core, what is one of your defining beliefs?
I believe that raw honesty ultimately is not just refreshing, but it pays off.
-Leah Fabel
