This month, due to unforseeable brain bakage, the Maundering Machine is Missing (or messed-up). Thus, to fill this gaping white space, we have brought back a Meander Maundering from several years ago...

Have you noticed that Time is compressing? I don't just mean that it seems like days go by faster, weeks are shorter, or that years aren't such a big deal any more. Time itself seems to be compressing. Months, no, the very seasons themselves, overlap.

You may not have noticed. You may have just attributed it to the fact that you're busy. You may think that as we get older, the relative span of Time represented by a minute, an hour, or a week is small compared to the Time we have already experienced. You probably think that it?s just a matter of perception.

The fact is, Time itself is getting faster. For now, we'll neglect discussing the meaning of Time's acceleration (for what is speed but a measure against Time? How can we even begin to measure the change of the metric itself?). Some cosmic spiral is collapsing in upon itself, and the very seconds that map our existence are constricting.

Even if you haven't noticed the shrinking of Time, Hallmark certainly has. Christmas and Halloween cards start appearing simultaneously at the end of September. Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, and New Year's Day will soon be a single dubious holiday, and, if the collapse continues, will soon include Ramadan and Presidents' Day as well.

Fortunately, the means to heal Time are available to us. Not surprisingly, Meandering is among them. All it takes is the effort to jar ourselves, shake our lives from the shackles of schedule, rip free from routine. Celebrate each day for its own significance, rather than for its proximity to some well-publicized Holiday. Craft your own holidays. Be spontaneous! Create meaning! Seize the Evening!

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

• "Originals and Covers" by Various Artists was performed by Andy, Max, and Joe
• "The Red Ranger of Mars" by Berkeley Breathed
• excerpts from The Loved Ones by Evelyn Waugh
• excerpts from her journals by Elizabeth
• excerpts from The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
• "a selection" by Pam Houston from Wild Places, 20 Journeys into the North American Outdoors by McHugh
• "Sonnet 93" by William Shakespeare

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...)