November 9, 2025
Sometimes the best way to understand who we are is to imagine what we’d do if we could rewrite the past. In today’s Thought of the Day and Question of the Day, we’re diving into two ideas that look wildly different on the surface, but actually hold hands behind our backs. One is about shared vulnerability; the other is about shared foolishness. Both say something profound about being human.
Thought of the Day: “What can happen to one can happen to all.” — Pubilius Syrus
The Stoic Romans had a knack for saying simple things that hit like a hammer. What can happen to one can happen to all. It’s a line that looks neat on a coffee mug, but feels a lot heavier when life gets messy.
We like to think bad luck is random and tragedy has a type. It’s comforting to believe we’re somehow immune to what happens “to other people.” But then, out of nowhere, life taps you on the shoulder and whispers, “Your turn.”
A friend gets laid off, and suddenly, you’re rethinking your own job security. A stranger loses someone they love, and it reminds you that your heart isn’t invincible either. That’s the truth Syrus was getting at: we’re not as separate as we pretend to be. What happens to others can happen to us. And, by extension, what happens through us can ripple outward too.
It’s not just about suffering, though. The beauty of that line is in its dual meaning. If good can happen to one, it can happen to all. If one person finds peace, healing, or success, it’s proof that such things are possible for the rest of us too.
That perspective makes empathy less of a virtue and more of a survival skill. You stop asking, “Why them?” and start asking, “What can I learn from this, before it’s me?”
If this resonates, you might enjoy “There’s Never, Ever Been Any Such Thing as Bad News”, a past post that dives into how perspective reshapes everything we experience.
Question of the Day: If time travel existed, what incredibly petty thing would you change?
I would go back to 1984 and buy $5000 worth of Apple stock, then make sure my past self didn’t know about it. I would set it up so my past self would learn about the money when I was 50.
The reason I wouldn’t let myself learn about the money until I was 50, would so I could live my life the same way I already lived it. Learning all the lessons I learned without change. Younger me would not have been able to handle any amount of wealth.
Imagine knowing your future self is secretly rich, but you can’t tell you. That’s diabolically ironic, and deeply human.
But that question opens a deeper rabbit hole: why are our “what-if” fantasies almost always small and self-centered? Sure, we could stop wars, invent Google first, or make dial-up Internet slightly less horrifying, but we’d rather fix that one awkward conversation from high school or change our fantasy football lineup.
Petty time travel is personal therapy disguised as humor. It reveals what tiny annoyances still have a hold on us, what we still haven’t let go of, even after years.
Maybe that’s why time travel stories always end in chaos, because they expose the illusion of control we cling to. We can’t fix the past, and that’s okay. The real power is realizing that our mistakes don’t define us; they refine us.
For another dive into how hindsight messes with us, check out “When the Person You Could Have Been Meets the Person You Are Becoming”. It’s one of my favorite posts about growth, regret, and self-acceptance.
The connection between the Thought and the Question of the Day is this: we all live in the same experiment. What happens to one can happen to all, and what one of us wishes we could undo, another of us is probably still doing.
So maybe instead of longing to change the past, we should share the wisdom we’ve earned from it. Maybe empathy is just emotional time travel, the act of revisiting old pain so someone else doesn’t have to.
And if that’s true, then the most valuable time machine isn’t in the future—it’s in the present, disguised as understanding.
Your Turn
If time travel existed, what tiny, ridiculous, or deeply satisfying change would you make? Leave your answer in the comments—or better yet, join the daily email so you can start every morning with a Thought of the Day and Question of the Day that keeps your brain spinning and your heart grounded.
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