Marcus Aurelius kept returning to one image: people are made for each other, like hands or eyelids working together. The Stoics called this sympatheia, the sense that we're all threaded into one living world. On a tired day it's easy to feel separate, like everyone is in your way. But the stranger, the coworker, the person who annoyed you, they're all carrying their own load. Remembering you belong to the same whole softens the edges. You don't have to like everyone. You only have to remember they're human, as you are. Today, look at one person you'd usually rush past and see them as a fellow traveler.

Inspired by the old idea of sympatheia. Written by Ugo Charles.