[bruce511]

I was pondering this myself recently. Usually in the context of "given a time machine, what advice would you go back and tell yourself".

That morphed into "what would you go back and tell your parents". And interestingly there was one thing that stayed front-of-mind.

I'd like to tell my father to stop smoking. It's so mundane, and certainly he's heard it many times before.

But I could tell him that it would kill him before he got to go to his daughters wedding. That he'd have to give up traveling to early. That he'd become housebound at a "young" age. That emphasima is not a fun way to die.

I realize he wouldn't have listened. I realize he already knew this (his mom died of emphasima, his dad from lung cancer), I realize that advice from some "random stranger" wouldn't matter. I realize that this future is too far away for him to contemplate. And yet....

Dad, you just turned 30. I'm back here to tell you to stop smoking. Please. You'll thank me later. You'll be around to thank me later.