Today Me, Tomorrow You
Phasing and Ideas Series — Entry 12
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The Phrasing and Ideas series is about elaborating on the thousand-plus entries I’ve collected in a document by the same name. These entries have been scavenged over several years through plenty of different situations and mediums. Every write-up visits one of the entries and gives it additional context, from where it was taken from, what it means to me, who I was when I found it, how it has grown with me over time, etc. For more information on the ‘Phasing and Ideas’ series, you can click here.
This is one of my celestial phrases: a phrase from my document revered further from the rest. These phrases are foundational to my life and how I wish to live — fundamental aspects of my ethos.
This phrase enters my life like it does many: through a famed Reddit post. Essentially, the story is about a man requiring roadside assistance and is eventually helped by a Mexican immigrant and his wife. They help him on the side of the road with his car troubles and when the narrator offers to pay them for their help, the Mexican man refuses and tells the man “Today me, tomorrow you.”
I wasn’t there for the original thread, and likely I found it from a random comments section re-telling of the story years later on, but I remember how impactful that story was the first time I read it, and upon finding that knowyourmeme page link of the story’s in-depth origins, I am so glad the tale continues to disseminate itself and make itself known to others.
Aside: comments sections, whether on Reddit, Youtube, Goodreads, Pornhub, etc., are where the true gems reside.
The story itself is a way to justify kindness toward other people with no expectation of a reward. It communicates the idea that a good deed is paid forward, and that there is a cyclical nature to the human species’ circumstance of needing and being able-to-deliver assistance. One day you help another, the next day you require help from another; one day the person you helped needed assistance, the next day they assist another person. The cycle churns on; the story repeats… beautiful.
I personally interpret the quote in a different way, marginally. I’ve chosen to co-opt the phrase to speak more in the realm of capturing and propagating information. Once upon a time, I had great reservations about wanting to participate in this process. I wanted to keep all the information I learned for myself, refusing to share because I was afraid if others had access to the knowledge I had, no longer would I be the unique character I saw myself as. I spoke about this in some depth back in entry 8 of this series.
This phrase helped break another barrier I had in my hesitations to share precious knowledge with others. Along with the phrase elaborated on in entry 8, and so many more since, I began to see the propagation of information as a coveted act. It would obviously take me a long while still to be so comfortable with sharing information that I do something like this series, but phrases like this one began my seeking out opportunities to share information, whether in informal daily dialogues with others, or formal mentorship.
Mentorship has been one of the great privileges of my life so far. To be able to speak to people who are now in situations you once upon a time found yourself in, and be able to equip them with information you wish you knew when you were in their shoes, has afforded me fulfillment beyond articulation. Additionally, to be able to listen to their concerns and contrast them to your own when you were going through such life events provides episodes of uncapped fascination. I’ve never not enjoyed hearing about the struggles that occupy one individual’s day-to-day life, and contrasting it to my own when we were experiencing similar daily environments. That joy I believe is stemmed from the fascination of how much depth there can be in the world regarding one’s interpretation of experience and environment. Additionally, of course, one’s environment is going to impose itself differently on two different individuals as well.
Back to it: today me, tomorrow you, represents a passing the torch of information from my hands to the next. To equip someone else with information that has helped me once upon a time, and hope it may be of some utility for them on their adventures. Since I was young, the great Jackie Robinson quote had always stuck with me, relevant to how I shaped my sense of self:
“A life is not important, except in the impact it has on other lives.”
— Jackie Robinson
Funny enough, I find this quote during my senior year of high school, used in an NFL Films A Football Life documentary for their late founder Steve Sabol. Jackie Robinson clearly permeated more than just his sport of baseball, and obviously far beyond the realm of sport in general.
He was right above all, though, Mr. Robinson… since hearing that quote I’ve always seen my life as in service to other people. It’s why I’ve loved mentorship as much as I do. Helping others maximize their potential and getting to play a little part of their stories is one of the privileges of a lifetime as mentioned before. Today me, tomorrow you illustrates that idea of becoming a conduit of information in service of others. The reward is in seeing others become their best selves, and seeing the cycle propagate itself again and again… and the world goes on, beautiful.
I figured I should recycle that phrasing again. For emphasis.
Reader, I hope you might adopt this point of view into your life moving forward. Understanding the opportunity one has to pass on information that could help another. Or, as we recollect the original story of the man on the side of the road: to help another one day knowing that on another, it will be you who needs help.
The cyclical nature of kindness in the world should never go unappreciated: a torch kept ablaze by everyday people upholding virtues innate to our condition and our spirit.
Life is a team game.
As you can see, this phrase was another step in me sharing content with the world outside of my journals and digital notepads. Attached is a playlist I made long ago filled with podcast episodes I found remarkably enlightening. For its description, I wrote the article’s phrase.
