When I was a child, I remember wondering why adults were so slow. It always seemed to take them a very long time to figure things out, or to do things. Everything, it seemed, had to be thought about before action could be taken. I, on the other hand, would rashly dive in and do whatever it was that first made sense.

Now that I'm older and slower, I find that I can still dive into certain things without thinking, and other things get harder and harder to do without excessive planning. Going out for a hike, or going down to Venice Beach, painting a picture, or programming something all used to be very spontaneous activities. No longer. Now I have to ponder, plan, arrange time, and, often, abandon the idea before it even gets started. Other things have just slowed. Writing a Meander Maundering takes me ten times as long as it did a mere seven years ago.

Well, time and tide wait for no man (and for few women), and here it is almost Spring again! One thing that must not be allowed to slow is appreciation: appreciation for good friends, for spring flowers, for clear views of the snow-sprinkled mountains, for the sound of the ocean, for bright Venus glinting in the twilight.

(For those of you who didn't attend last time, please note that, we now meet at the Meier Quagg instead of the Sunnyside Asylum. See below for directions, if you need them.)

Phone in comments to 310.210.3347, meil 'em to the postal address skillfully concealed elsewhere on this page, or email 'em to samuelg@themeander.org

All misspellings, misattributions, omissions or errors in naming should be construed as Acts of God, directed through yours truly (for reasons at which we as mere mortals may only guess...)