I get nosebleeds. Always have, at least as far back as i can remember. They mostly come with the seasonal shifts and rises in altitude, but i suppose any number of variables could ultimately contribute. As such, I find myself biologically sensitive to change, in most any respects. What strikes me most about it all, however, is that no matter how many changes come and go, real and imagined, somehow the condition persists. As the old saying goes, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

So what is the core essence of change? Is it solely contingent on the forward arc of the minute hand, or is there something more? Some call it progress, others entropy. One can hardly look at rotting fruit and imagine any good thing jumping out, but it happens.

FDR once said there were many ways to move forward, but only one way to stand still. I challenge that notion, rather insisting that there is no way to remain still in a constantly spinning world, that in our most motionless moments, there are a million forces conspiring against stasis and we have no choice but to yield.

So change, it seems to me, is the fabric of our time, perhaps even the master of it. It is something huge, set in motion long before we claimed our place in the sun, and will no doubt press forward long after we have faded into the stone.

That said, i have chosen the inevitable progression of existence as the binding topic for this, the third installment of the fragx anthology. Visible in everything from the broadest expanse of space to the intricacies of human interaction to the realization that an era has come and gone with little warning to its participants. It is both a curse to bear and a boon to witness, and it leaves no man or woman untouched.

-cachilders