The bloot-length story: Along with a number of very talented colleagues, I was suddenly laid off from Vox Media a while back. Despite constantly searching for new work, I've been unemployed for a long time, with only freelancing gigs, short-term contract work, and periods of poverty to break up the dullness. I'm passing through one of the latter now, between the end of one public benefit and the beginning of another. Groceries are precarious; I've been threatened with eviction.

I'm hoping your donation would help me pay overdue utility bills and cover enough back rent to keep my landlord at bay. Things are tough all over—if there's nothing you can do, then we have that in common. But if you could help, please do: trust me that even a little would be more than I have now.

It is a lot to ask, perhaps, and it feels strange that I should plead for grace and dignity from a large anonymous text box. But grace and dignity are at stake, nothing grander or simpler. If it's within your power to grant them, I will never forget it.

Thank you for taking a moment to consider me.