It Doesn't Matter How Bad Things Are Here

The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz Podcast · Apr 2, 2026 · 5m

A reader recently told me that she thinks I’ve become too negative lately: that she misses the optimistic version of me that she got to know before the 2024 election.

“I miss that version of me, too,” I assured her.

Then I asked: “So, do you want me to be optimistic or honest?”

I wasn’t being facetious or sarcastic with the question.

I know that she (like myself and every other sentient human being with working empathy) has completely had it with the catastrophic, the unprecedented, the terrifying. She (like all of us) is stumbling around, both hope and sleep-deprived.

But the alternative to…