Pandora's box

I always thought time travel was creepy. It wasn't just that it warped reality in ways that had implications that lead places I didn't like. (Could even the most basic facts actually be true if everything was that fluid? What does one build a life on if everything can morph at any point in the way of the most disconcerting of nightmares?) The consequences of one little change seemed impossible to know and potentially far larger than most authors who worked with speculative fiction in this manner addressed, although perhaps less catastrophic than a few envisioned. (Or perhaps not...)

Almost everyone has something s/he desperately wants to go back in time and change, something one wants so very badly to tell ones younger self. Perhaps it is fortunate no one is likely to ever be able to open that box and change forever our ability to effect the direction in which time flows. (Yes I am aware that there is some fascinating scientific speculation around the fourth dimension, but in my admittedly utterly and thoroughly ignorant opinion it doesn't seem likely to go anywhere practical in this regard.)