Thought of the day from Stoic philosopher Cleanthes: "The Fates lead the willing; they drag the unwilling."

When your flight is delayed three hours with no explanation and a toddler in tow, you learn the difference between what you can control and what you simply must endure.

Published September 2, 2026 · How we edit

The gate agent said it into the intercom in the flat, over-it tone of someone who’d already said it a few times that week, while my toddler used the empty seat next to ours as a runway for a very small, very loud toy plane, oblivious to the actual one going nowhere outside the window. Nobody at the gate got an explanation. Somewhere between Santiago and São Paulo, our flight had turned into a placeholder on a departures board instead of an actual departure.