The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz

Article voiceover 0:00 -4:51 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Photo by Carolina Heza on Unsplash Warning: this piece contains language regarding sexual assault that may be triggering or uncomfortable to some. In October of 2024, a then 20-year-old young woman alleges she was brutally assaulted by 7 of her Cornell University classmates, at least one of whom she considered a friend.

Article voiceover 0:00 -4:20 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Photo by Tom Caillarec on Unsplash The accumulated sorrows I’ve been carrying have almost nothing to do with that repugnant, needy, narcissistic bigot in the White House who has never had a single noble impulse in his privileged existence. This was never about him. He is who he has always been: callous, hateful, bereft of kindness or empathy. I am mourning everything he has shown me about them.

Article voiceover 0:00 -5:15 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Photo by Ximena Nahmias on Unsplash Sometimes, I’m apt to forget that. In the course of my ordinary days, I rarely question whether I’m masculine enough.

Article voiceover 0:00 -4:31 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. I don’t imagine Jesus was the litigious type, but if he were on the planet right now, I’m pretty sure he’d sue JD Vance for false association or identity theft. At the very least, he’d violently flip the tables of the entire Trump Administration and him along with it.

Article voiceover 0:00 -6:02 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. “You shouldn’t let politics get in the way of your relationships.” As we approach one of the most consequential elections in our nation’s 250-year lifespan, I see this sentiment pop up on social media a good bit in think pieces and news stories: the idea that family members and friends are too important to lose over a political position, a party affiliation, or a ballot choice.

Warning: this piece includes references to sexual assault, as well as words many may find offensive. Everything discussed is alleged in a civil lawsuit filed by the family of Jane Doe. Just one decent human being. That is all a then 20-year-old Jane Doe needed to save her from the monsters encircling her in that frat house of ghastly, unrelenting violence few of us can comprehend.

To Whom it May Concern, Take a second and think about your day… Did getting out of bed come without apprehension? Did the simple tasks in front of you fail to overwhelm you? Did you keep your nagging fears at bay? Were you relatively comfortable in your skin? Were you able to quiet the voices of insecurity and anxiety when they began to chatter? Did you interact with people without fighting back a hot rush of panic and the feeling that everyone was judging you?

We’re in the middle of a male loneliness epidemic, or so we’re told. Our social media feeds are filled with news stories, think pieces, and video commentaries lamenting the apparent pervasive sense of isolation our young men are afflicted with; the absence of deep friendships with other men and meaningful connections with women; the higher rates of depression and addiction.

Republicans know they can’t win in November. We can tell this because they are spending every waking hour trying to convince us that, despite a lame-duck, barely able to stay awake, sitting president whose approval rating is hovering somewhere between death and explosive diarrhea, they are on the ascent. They have the data.

Again today, through thin, sneering lips he will be found spewing out a toxic torrent of abject falsehoods. He will recklessly slither through the world, effortlessly manufacturing disinformation intended to sow chaos and engineer despair. He will gleefully vomit out staggering untruths to distract from his prolific criminality.