The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz Podcast

John Pavlovitz
  • 4.9 (74)
  • Society & Culture

Authentic words for everyone trying to figure out the best way to be human. johnpavlovitz.substack.com

  1. 2h ago

    Trump Voters, Is This Really What You Wanted?

    A vote is loud. Whether that vote is cast joyfully or with trepidation or begrudgingly or without all the information or as a protest, it makes the same bold statements:This is my choice.I am with this person.I consent to their conduct.I co-sign their actions.I endorse them. A vote doesn’t have qualifiers or caveats or escape clauses. It simply says Yes or No. And as we’re witnessing a rapid and expansive dismantling of our nation’s systems, a complete mockery of our Cabinet positions, a pervasive chaos enveloping everything from our social services to our healthcare to our Military to our essential needs to our standing in the world, the one question I keep wanting to ask those of you who voted for him is: Is this really what you wanted? Did you want prices on groceries and gas to rise stratospherically as he taunts our long-time allies?Did you want a senseless and unwinnable war of choice in Iran that is depleting our financial resources and throwing the world into unnecessary turmoil?Did you want to live under an oppressive police surveillance state, to have every intimate aspect of your life monitored by the Government, to have surrendered any sense of privacy or personal freedom?Did you intend for immigrant families to be terrorized in their workplaces, schools, and homes, with no regard for due process or for legal and human rights? Did you vote for the Epstein Files to be hidden from view, protecting the absolute most vile predators and pedophiles?Did you vote for the selling off and destruction of protected natural lands, for concentration camps, for screaming, water-guzzling data centers swallowing up your community? Did you vote for the elimination of programs that provide veterans their benefits, poor children a school lunch, the elderly their hard-earned retirement?Did you want us alienated from the world and removed from every global humanitarian and diplomatic partnership we have participated in for decades?Did you vote for massive, opulent ballrooms, gaudy vanity arches, ego-stroking building alterations, and wasteful reflecting pool renovations? Is this what you voted for?Because if this isn’t what you voted for, you need to be vocal now. Silence is not a luxury anyone can afford in days like these. To be silent now, after voting so loudly, is irresponsible and unhelpful.Your silence doesn’t protect refugees or avoid disastrous Cabinet appointees or pay treatment bills for the now uninsured.It doesn’t shield marginalized communities from hate crimes or protect America’s farmers or care for the disabled or challenge the President’s flagrant nepotism. Your silence doesn’t encourage lawmakers to push against their party even if they feel they should, and it doesn’t show solidarity with activists in the streets spending themselves to advocate for equality and justice.It doesn’t discourage the President and his spokespeople from rolling out an unrelenting stream of lies or attacking those doing real, Constitution-guarding journalism.It doesn’t hold those in the highest levels of power and influence accountable for disregarding every procedure, rule of law, and safeguard established to ensure that every citizen is protected from those governing them. Your silence doesn’t do anything right now but allow you to divorce yourself from your vote, to avoid any accountability for the man you’ve chosen, and to perpetuate the erratic, reckless, criminal behavior that is endangering every human being here. What this means, friend, is that if you are indeed regretting your vote in any way, this would be the time to stand up and say so. Millions of us are out here doing the work of pushing back and speaking for the marginalized and poor and disregarded (including Trump voters), and we’re marching, and we’re calling our elected officials, and we’re busting our butts to keep our Constitution intact.And all the while, the narrative the President is selling is that this is a partisan, Liberal Media-created mirage. He’s attempting to manufacture a political civil war via social media to divert attention from the insidious stuff happening right now that should be horrifying all of us.And every day you say nothing, our Republic is more and more vulnerable, more and more compromised, more and more in danger of losing the very essence of its freedoms and liberties. All this to say, I’m really sorry for your embarrassment or your guilt or your feeling foolish, but even more concerned about your silence. I hear that many people are leaving MAGA, that they are tired of this waste, this recklessness, this greed, this incompetence. Maybe you’re one of those people. I just hope you won’t leave quietly. Your vote in 2024, for whatever reason you cast it, was loud. And if you regret that vote or if you don’t consent to what you are seeing from this man and this Administration, your volume and your vote now is necessary, too. Please join those of us who are resisting together because we love America more than a political party, because this isn’t about any of us; it’s about all of us. Please speak, and speak loudly. The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe

  2. 1d ago

    I Dream Of Waking Up In Another Country.

    Mornings are strange these days. The sedative haze of sleep slowly begins to lift, and my conscious mind starts taking inventory and assembling the data and reporting back its initial findings: I’m in bed… I’m awake… I’m alive… It’s Wednesday… But most of the time, that’s about as far as I get when I am suddenly assaulted with another, far more sobering realization: I’m in America… … s**t. And, in a disorienting few seconds, I’m violently ripped from any sense of peace or rest by the lengthy litany of atrocities from the previous day: the Constitutional crises, the acts of unthinkable brutality, the falling away of systemic safeguards, the metastasizing mass of sycophantic cultists. A jolt of adrenaline comes flooding in as my barely awakened body senses imminent danger without me needing to do a thing other than remember the lawlessness of our President, the complicity of his party, the bent knees of the billionaires, the genuflecting of the Church, the capitulation of the Press, and the snarling brainwashed rabble of once-reasonable, decent human beings with whom I used to feel at home. And just like that, mere minutes after returning to the waking world, I want to go back to sleep, already exhausted, already disheartened, already grief-stricken. It gives me absolutely no joy to say that on most days now, I hate waking up in this country. I confess to regularly daydreaming about being an expat: of putting new roots into foreign soil and reclaiming somewhere else what it feels like we’ve lost here. I find myself imagining what it would be like to greet the day in another country, someplace where racism wasn’t celebrated, where empathy wasn’t a character flaw, where corruption wasn’t so prolific, where hatred didn’t find such safe harbor from its leaders and their disciples. Yet, I know the reality is that some of this is me lamenting the devil I know: that while seeing America with a microscope and the rest of the world with a telescope, my vision is not as clear as it could be. Yes, there are certainly a myriad of places on this planet where gun violence is not ubiquitous, where predators are not protected, where illness does not bring bankruptcy, where Science is not assailed, where religion is not legislated, where diversity is not reviled, where education is not under siege, and where democracy is not evaporating. But these places have their own dangers and demons, and both time and proximity would surely reveal them. So, while I do hate waking up in this country and I do dream of waking up in another one, perhaps it isn’t about my geography changing but about me changing the geography I find myself in. Maybe I don’t want to wake up in another country but in a more just, more beautiful, more compassionate version of this one; an America that embodies the greatest of its aspirations, one that more fully becomes what the songs and anthems promised we could be, one that would be worth someone else inheriting. I’m not going to pretend I’m sure that such a place is still possible. It may be that the systemic damage we’ve sustained in the last eighteen months is irreparable. Our collective bloodstream may be so poisoned with tribalism and prejudice that we cannot recover. The unholy marriage of Church and State may indeed be too far along to drive a wedge between. But I suppose that’s why they call it a dream. And while I am beginning yet another day here exhausted, disheartened, and grief-stricken, I am going to find a way to step out into it and do all I can with the light and the hours I have before darkness and sleep arrive. And if millions of us all do the same, maybe one morning in the future (maybe in November), we will find ourselves greeting the dawn not with sadness but with jubilation, not with dread but with hope. Right now, I hate waking up in this America. I want to wake up in a better one. Do you struggle with the reality of the nation you wake up in? Is it difficult to find the resolve to keep going? How are you holding the tension between wanting to leave and wanting to stay and fight? Let me know in the comments. The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe

  3. 3d ago

    Congratulations, MAGAs, You Really Won With “Lake America”

    Well, Trump supporters, I have to admit, you sure won this one. Your guy really handed our rear ends to us this time. I can see why you’re pounding your chest and dunking on us liberals on social media about this Lake America business. You all finally put Canada and all of us woke idiots in our places. I mean, sure, you can barely afford groceries at this point. And yeah, even if you happen to be able to, there’s a high likelihood that what you eat will kill you, shred your stomach lining, or leave you with explosive diarrhea. No worries, though; at least you’ll be able to get the absolute bare minimum of healthcare that you’ll need to get a second mortgage on your house to afford, providing you aren’t underwater on the first one. Hopefully you don’t miss any work, though, because your PTO is basically nonexistent, but hey, you get to taunt all us leftist losers with a big ol’ “Lake America” middle finger. That’s gotta cushion the blow of the stratospheric bills that you’re going home to (Enjoy filling the gas tank on your F-150, by the way). The important thing is that you’re winning. Yes, our Federal Government has weaponized our armed forces against entire cities, inciting violence, disrupting the local economy, and terrorizing innocent human beings for exercising their freedoms of speech, expression, and assembly. No matter, those elemental, Constitutionally guaranteed personal liberties and many others are essentially null and void at this point anyway. And sure, the separation between Church and State has now been rendered nonexistent, with a religion of compulsion now being legislated for tens of millions of people who do not adhere to those teachings. And yeah, our Government is enabling not one, but two violent, genocidal eradications of entire populations. Our systems of education, human health, and national security are under the control of unqualified, ill-prepared, and mentally unstable grifters whose allegiances are to a person and not our Constitution. The President has declared war on half of the population of this nation, using the power of his platform to perpetuate lies, stoke division, sow chaos, and escalate conflict. We’re also now alienated from nearly all our global allies, and decades of carefully crafted partnerships have been destroyed in a matter of months. And yes, your kids will be more susceptible to preventable illness, the food you’ll be eating will have fewer safeguards, your wages will continue to decrease, and your personal freedoms will gradually vanish. But the bottom line, MAGA friends, is that you’ve won the war over a body of water’s branding (too bad you can’t say the same about the never-ending war in Iran that you’re currently paying out the nose for). With your party controlling the presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court, America must now be as great as you’ve been telling us for years that it would be, and so you have no cause to be concerned or reason to be miserable. You must be happy right now with the economy, your paycheck, your healthcare premiums, food safety, the level of gun violence, the wars of choice you’re funding, and the prospects you have for growth, health, career advancement, and financial opportunities. So, congratulations, Trump supporters, you’ve renamed a lake—and all it’s cost you is a functioning government, a working democracy, human rights, national peace, economic stability, affordable groceries, affordable healthcare, qualified leaders, and global standing. Personally, as a card-carrying Lib, I feel fully and completely owned. I’m sure all those poor Canadians your guy stuck it to this week feel truly defeated, as they retreat to their peaceful nation where they have affordable groceries, excellent healthcare, a living wage, national pride, global respect, and leaders who aren’t felons and rapists. I hope your Lake America t-shirt makes you feel like the winners you are… The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe

  4. 5d ago

    Haven’t You Had Enough Of This Sh*t, America?

    For the love of God and all that’s good and beautiful, haven’t you had enough, America? Enough book bans,culture wars,bathroom bills,family separations,poisoned food,renamed lakes,unrelenting surveillance,tax-funded genocides,and wars of choice?Haven’t you had enough of terrorized refugees,billionaire techbros,hospital room ICE raids,protected predators,ignored lynchings,kleptocratic malpractice,legislated religion,and of being helmed by a lecherous, drug-addled, vile, barely literate serial predator and career criminal?Haven’t you had enough of brutal assaults on the rights of women,on immigrants,on transgender teens,on unarmed black men,on affordable healthcare,on free speech,on our Military?Have you had enough of relentless attacks on the poor,on the disabled,on the environment,on peaceful protestors,on the electoral process,on the US Postal Service,on objective truth,on empathy,on diversity as an idea? Haven’t you had enough nonsensical conspiracies,denials of Science,mockery of expertise,ignored climate change,silencing of doctors,stoked racism,polluted courts? Haven’t you had enough cruelty,enough bigotry,enough criminality,enough divisiveness,enough malevolence,enough hatred,enough ugliness?Haven’t you had enough needless suffering,enough unnecessary death,enough Constitutional crises,enough curated conflict,enough manufactured emergencies,enough presidential tweet tantrums,enough intentional chaos? Maybe it’s just me. Maybe you’re fine with it all; maybe this is good enough for you; maybe you’ve resigned yourself to this dystopian white nationalist fever dream as inevitable. I sure as hell haven’t. I’ve had enough of this frenetic circus of sociopathy over the past ten years to last a thousand lifetimes. I’m sick to my stomach of the nation we are, and I’m in-the-marrow-of-my-bones tired of being embarrassed of and grieving over the place I call home. I want something better. I want equity pursued.I want bigotry shouted down.I want justice escorted in.I want compassion to trend.I want kindness to go viral.I want diversity to be celebrated.I want the poor, tired, huddled masses to breathe again here.I want ceremonial American “greatness” to give way to actual common goodness.I want to stop being at the mercy of sadistic, hateful human beings who have contempt for everything and everyone. What the hell do you want for this place, and are you willing to do whatever is necessary to get it? November is coming, and there’s no way to overstate the reality that this is the last stand for all of it, for all of us. What we do over the coming weeks will initiate our rebirth or write our epitaph as a Republic. You and I have this moment to end what we’ve had enough of and to usher in what we want to see more of; to demand what we cannot live without and to condemn what we will not abide.We have this moment to create a home for ourselves and our children, and for other people’s children, for everyone who lives here and for all those who dream of living here.We have this moment to leave something for the vast multitude on the horizon of history who will inherit this place; this moment, between the America that is and the America that could be—and for better or for worse, will be. And it is all in our hands.Regardless of their gerrymandering and suppression and intimidation and lawlessness, We The Pissed-Off People can wield our numbers to defy and defeat them together.We simply have to decide to put aside our purity tests and our excuses and our infighting and our minor differences and our apathy, and do the damn work together instead of bickering, complaining, and distracting ourselves into fascism. No politician is likely to move people who are still inexplicably undecided; those still stuck in laziness, hopelessness, or ignorance; those who still aren’t planning to use their voices. Only you can do that. Only you can reach people in the trenches of your relationships with them: in your home and your neighborhood and at your school and at work and on your timelines. You can be the difference in the day. What have you had enough of over the last ten exhausting, disorienting, heartbreaking years?What do you want to leave for those who will follow us?What will you do in the coming days in response? America is not in the hands of a politician or a preacher or an athlete or a celebrity; it’s in our hands. Yes, it’s true, no one is coming to save us. The only question left is, will we save ourselves? In the weeks ahead, may you leverage your voice, your time, your resources, your circle of influence, your network, and your community, and may you do all you can to transform the America that is into the America that could be. This will be the dawn or the death of the nation we dream of making. In November, may we wake up in that hopeful, beautiful, glorious place of possibility again. I have had enough of this divided, corrosive, violent, failing America. Have you? The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe

  5. Aug 26

    No, MAGA, Dolly Was Not One Of You.

    Hey MAGA, a quick word. I see you out here today, trying to claim Dolly Parton as your own, as if she were one of you, as if you and she were kindred spirits, as if your heart and hers were aligned. Just stop it. Dolly was far too kind to tell you this while she was alive, so I will: you and she had little in common. Oh sure, from a distance, it might seem that way, but get a little closer and dig a little deeper and the differences could not be greater… Dolly loved people, all people. Unlike you, she loved without qualifiers, catches, caveats, or conditions. Her love did not come with strings or theological hoops or political litmus tests. In Dolly’s no one had to stand outside or prove their worth or earn her decency. Dolly loved America, real America. She wasn’t about that flag-waving, Don’t Tread On Me, America First, Christian Nationalism, Send Them Back nonsense you continually peddle as patriotism. Her America was diverse, open-armed, inclusive, and kind; a place where everyone deserved to feel at home. Dolly was a Christian, a Jesus Christian. Her deep and abiding faith did not need to be loudly broadcast or worn as a costume. It did not seek to bend anyone to its will. It was not something she wielded like a hammer in forced compliance. Her faith simply and clearly showed up, in an unrestrained love for neighbor that reflected the open-handed, open-hearted compassion of Christ that you mock as toxic. Dolly believed in family, every family. A faithful, passionate supporter of the LGBTQ community, Dolly’s advocacy of family was not confined to some rigid, White Evangelical monument to straightness and whiteness. She understood something in the core of her being you never will: that love cannot be limited and will not be hemmed in. Dolly Parton was not MAGA in any way; she was its beautiful counterpoint. She was a vaccine-supporting, nature-preserving, book-loving, trans-defending gay icon, and nearly everything she stood for flies fully in the face of the cruel, sneering, exclusionary narcissism of your vile, bloviating, spray-tanned messiah and his hateful movement, which you so joyfully partner in. Dolly Parton showed respect to every single human being who ever had the good fortune of being in her orbit, whether at arm’s length or from thousands of miles away. She left everyone feeling seen and heard and loved and respected, regardless of orientation, pigmentation, nation of origin, or any other qualifier. She never saw anyone as an enemy to be defeated, never attempted to gatekeep blessings or opportunity, never demanded that someone earn her decency, and never dehumanized a single soul. Dolly was an American, a Christian, and a human, but using those words alone does not guarantee similarity or affinity. In the specificity of a life lived, that’s where patriotism, faith, and humanity reveal themselves. As they say, God is in the details. Yes, you should aspire to emulate her and endeavor to replicate the generosity and unconditional love she so easily moved through this life with. And you’re welcome to show her respect and gratitude; in fact, you should. But please, don’t try to claim her as yours today, MAGA. She simply wasn’t.Note: By the way, Dolly loved you as much as she loved anyone, because that’s who she was. She respected you, believed you should be free to be exactly who you are, to believe that you believe, and to support who you support politically, but that doesn’t change the reality that your support of MAGA Republicans’ platform runs counter to so much of what Dolly stood for, cared about, and gave her money and time to. The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe

  6. Aug 26

    Dolly Parton Knew How To Be Human.

    This one hurts like hell. This planet has lost so much with the passing of Dolly Parton that it’s difficult to even find a foothold for the grief, a place to begin to process all that she was and all that she gave us.In the coming days, there will be countless, well-deserved tributes devoted to her seismic songwriting and singing career, her formidable business acumen, her indefatigable optimism, and her easy, infectious joy. Dolly will be rightly eulogized for the effortless grace she moved through the world with, for the gentleness she extended to every person in her path, and for the humility she somehow managed to hold onto despite reaching near-sainthood status among fans, admirers, and peers alike. Her life and career have and will provide an inexhaustible treasure trove of lessons for those of us who remain—and for those on the horizon of history who will not have had the great fortune to live here while she did. Far more eloquent people than I will find ways to capture in words her ineffable spirit and the limitless wisdom they will glean from her in matters of faith, songcraft, and empire-building. All I can say is that Dolly Parton knew how to be human better than just about anyone I can think of. For me, one of the biggest takeaways of Dolly’s passing is the way she reminded us what wealth and influence can do when they are in the hands of someone whose life is oriented outward, someone who remembers what it is to lack, someone who values being human over being a billionaire. With a staggering personal portfolio of publishing royalties, tour revenue, licensing deals, business ventures, property investments, and the spoils of a lifetime in the highest echelons of the entertainment business, Dolly Parton could have had more with very little effort. She could have followed the lead of the Musks and the Bezoses and the Zuckerbergs and the Ellisons. She could have hoarded her fortune, growing more narcissistic and tight-fisted. She could have partnered with the legion of malevolent power-holders, motivated only by the insatiable allure of more. She could have exploited the influence she acquired to amass even greater fortune. Instead, Dolly Parton spent her life giving her wealth away.She started the nonprofit Dollywood Foundation, marshaling her resources and influence to fight illiteracy in her beloved Tennessee community. She created Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which to date has donated over 300 million books to children all over the world. She raised money for the American Red Cross and HIV/AIDS-related charities. She helped fund cancer centers and hospitals. She donated a million dollars during the throes of COVID to expedite vaccine development. She provided wildfire relief following the Great Smoky Mountain Wildfires, financially supported victims of Hurricane Helene, and worked to preserve the American Bald Eagle. Living in a country music ecosystem often populated by homophobia and racism, she risked losing financial opportunities and fan support by advocating for the LGBTQ community and for people of color. Over and over again, Dolly Parton reminded us that money and power do not alter character but reveal it. She leaves this planet as an enduring folk hero and a universally beloved national treasure because she never allowed her lofty place in the culture, her legend status as a performer, or her considerable riches to make her forget where she came from or why she was here. We’ve gotten so used to seeing the wealthiest people on the planet being the least compassionate, the most unapologetically cruel; rejecting their better angels and courting their inner demons. We’ve watched them partner with despots, devour the vulnerable, and pillage the planet to further the gap between themselves and the disparate humanity they end up in contempt of. Dolly Parton was the antithesis of this. We could always count on her to get it right, to do the decent thing, to model dignity, to always pass the good human test. That’s why her loss hits so hard, and why we owe it to her to remember what she taught us about the point of being here: to stay human. Whether we have five bucks to our name or we’ve amassed a small fortune, whether we toil in obscurity or receive the praise of multitudes, Dolly Parton’s life stands as a reminder that we are not our achievements or our accolades or our net worth. We are not our career successes or our social standing or the kudos we merit. As she so eloquently testified for 80 glorious years, the measure of a life is in what we do with what we are entrusted with, how we treat people around us, and the person we are in both lack and abundance. Among the countless roles and titles at which Dolly Parton has so excelled, her single greatest performance was as a human being. That has made her among the richest people to ever grace this planet. Share your memories and gratitude for Dolly in the comments. If you loved, respected Dolly and want to celebrate her extraordinary life, please support her Imagination Library. The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe

  7. Aug 25

    Can America Survive The Cancer Of MAGA?

    Some days I wonder if this nation can be saved. I know what I’m supposed to believe. I’m supposed to believe that America is still in its infancy, that it is a beautiful but complicated idea, that we simply haven’t become what we can and will become. I’m supposed to remember that history is cyclical, that all barbaric regimes are temporary, and that every evil empire invariably falls. I’m supposed to hold fast to the dream that we will emerge from this scalding present crucible, transformed and made better by the conflict. I know that I’m supposed to believe that we have still not seen our best days yet, and that when we eventually do, it will be worth all the struggle we’ve endured to claim the nation our forebears dreamed of. In the past, I’ve often believed that. I’ve written it. I’ve preached it. Now, I’m not so sure. 250 years into our collective lifespan, we are as afflicted with systemic racism as we’ve ever been, white nationalism has completely infected the entirety of one of our political parties, and we are teetering perilously close to extremist minority rule that will in effect, permanently silence the voices and votes of the vast majority. With every bit of the planet’s accumulated information now literally in the palms of our hands, too many of our people are still believing easily disprovable falsehoods, still falling victim to nonsensical conspiracies, still vulnerable to baseless lies about their neighbors. Even with the benefits of hindsight of our shameful and bloody history, a toxic cocktail of overt racism, neanderthal theology, intellectual ignorance, and self-preservation has rendered a large swath of America hostile to Science, terrified of diversity, and irrationally violent toward vulnerable people. And perhaps worst of all, a substantial portion of this nation remains emotionally tethered to one of the single most reprehensible human beings on the planet, despite a decade of prolific lawlessness and unrepentant moral filth. His ineptitude, narcissism, predation, and criminality have not proven to be dealbreakers but selling points. How are decent, reasonable people supposed to work with this?How do we find common ground with those who insist on dehumanization of those who are different?How can we engage in constructive conversation or honest dialogue with people whose reality is so arbitrary, whose truth is so malleable, whose moral goalposts are forever shifting?How can we forge a new and more equitable America, while so many Americans live perpetually backwards, pining for a bygone day when fewer people had a voice or a vote?How can we coexist with those who would rewind this nation to a time when women, people of color, and LGBTQ human beings had their value determined, their options dictated, and their futures defined by straight, white men? If our families and friendships and workplaces and churches and political systems are all still this saturated with supremacy, can an interdependent community of disparate humanity with equitable access to life, liberty, and happiness ever be a reality here? Romanticism and misplaced optimism aside, is America as we envision it still possible, with MAGA’s poison having infected its bloodstream? It may of course still be possible, yet with every year I think it becomes less and less probable. The longer we live as a nation with these untreated collective cancers of heart and mind, the greater opportunity they have to metastasize exponentially and the less chance we have of eradicating them for good. History reminds us that the more we abide brutality and tolerate discrimination, the more normal they become, the more difficult they are to excise. Our present normal is not sustainable if we’re ever going to grow into something truly beautiful. I want this nation to become what the songs and the anthems declare we can be, but I’m not sure we all share that desire. I think many of us want the ugliest atrocities of our past to be our future, and that may be a disease too invasive to be healed of for the rest of us. There’s an old saying: when the horse is dead, dismount. The ride may be over for America. Maybe this horse is beyond saving. Yes, I’ll show up again today, leveraging my time, my resources, and my voice in the cause of equality and empathy; to do all I can let freedom ring and let justice roll down like a river, though I admit, it feels like a fool’s errand. Still, I want to know I left this life doing everything I could to help us get well, and that’s what will propel me back out into the fray once again. I’m waking up in this America that is, and will be fighting like hell to craft the America that could be, as futile as that sometimes seems. For ten interminable, exhausting years, MAGA has been an invasive, insidious national cancer. I wonder if we can survive it. What about you? How do you view the damage of the last decade? Do you see our demise as a foregone conclusion, or do you feel hopeful that transformation can and will come? Let me know in the comments. The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe

  8. Aug 21

    Radical Self-Care in a National Nightmare

    Friends, these days will kill you if you’re not careful. As we find ourselves fully engulfed in the Category 5 s**t storm that is a second Trump term, two things are irrefutably clear: it’s much worse than we thought it would be, and it’s gonna get much worse before it gets better. At this point, even the most pessimistic post-2024 election predictions have woefully underestimated the scope and velocity of the carnage to our systems of protection, our long-established structural institutions, and the elemental freedoms we’ve counted as givens. The emotional whiplash of a relentless stream of diabolical Executive Orders, unrestrained sociopathy, stratospheric economic malpractice, and pathological attacks on vulnerable people is enough to level even the most measured and otherwise imperturbable among us. In other words, our nervous systems weren’t built for this very special kind of homegrown hell. What that means, in rubber-meets-the-road practicality, is that all the normal tried-and-true avenues of self-care may likely prove insufficient. Even if you are somehow able in this disorienting, perpetual state of national emergencies and existential crises to actually keep a strict regimen of sleep, good nutrition, hydration, exercise, meditation, prayer, time in nature, relational connection, artistic pursuits, therapy, and limited media exposure—you might still feel like you’re about a millisecond from completely losing it in any given moment. (I know that I am.) Now, you definitely don’t want to abandon the above practices, as they’ll surely help tether you to health and sanity, but I want to suggest that you might want to philosophically make other alterations in light of the gravity of these days; some new daily commitments you can make to yourself to navigate the nightmare. Consider these: Burn bridges to toxic people. It’s a noble thing to want to reach across lines of tribalism and to try and stay connected with those whose opinions differ from ours, but there’s a limit to what is healthy, or called for, or even hunamly possible. Recently, our friends, family members, neighbors, and co-workers have revealed with great clarity who they are, what is stored up in their hearts. At this point, it’s perfectly fine to determine that some people, even people we know well and love, are morally incompatible with us.Have the damn dessert. Yeah, we all know that as a rule, emotional eating is a bad idea and that intentionally overindulging won’t be good long-term, but given the number of historic implosions happening right now and the uncertainty of so many things, it’s a good idea to treat yourself to some comfort food or a libation or some small sensory pleasure, to remind yourself of the beauty found in simplicity. (Now, what wine pairs well with the fall of a Republic?) Stop procrastinating away happiness. If you’ve been postponing a dream trip, holding off on writing your novel, or putting off a new project, cut that crap out, now. It isn’t trivial to attend to such things when disaster hits, but essential. One of the greatest forms of resistance is to live fully, joyfully, and creatively. Yes, it may all be hitting the fan right now, but you can put on a poncho and press on. Don’t wait for permission to really live, because fascists will not provide it. Ask anything and say everything. One of the blessings of destabilizing, consequential moments like the ones that we’re in is that they help us clarify who we are and precisely what is worth living for; the causes and people that matter to us. Over the last two years you’ve likely learned a great deal about yourself, or you’ve been reminded of stuff that you forgot. And if things are all going sideways anyway, it’s a great time to be exactly who you are without apology or editing. Stop giving a damn what people think. Repeat after me: someone else’s opinion of me is none of my business. Unbelievably, there are still people who are so addled by some toxic cocktail of denial, wishful thinking, ignorance, and American exceptionalism that they insist on tone policing those of us who are sounding the alarm and announcing the sky’s plummeting toward us. Those people do not deserve your time or emotional bandwidth. Refuse to be burdened by their expectations or bound by their sensibilities; you have a nation to save. Please understand that I’m not minimizing what we’re going through collectively and what you’re enduring individually or what’s ahead for all of us. These are sobering, harrowing, dangerous times, and we will be pressed up against threats and worries many of us have never faced before. That’s all the more reason to live the hell out of single every day. So yes, friends, please take good care of your physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, and relational health by adopting practices and patterns that can provide a buffer between you and the terrifying hellscapes on your timeline, outside your window, and in your head. But beyond that, in what feels like (and may indeed be) the worst-case scenario, make it a priority to radically care for yourself by refusing to compromise or deny yourself simple pleasures or postpone your dreams or silence your own voice. The world may indeed be falling apart, but we don’t have to. What are some self-care rules you’ve adopted recently that you’d add to my list? Please share in the comments. The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit johnpavlovitz.substack.com/subscribe

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