The earth rotates on its axis every 24 hours, and makes a complete orbit around the sun every 23,934 hours (or ~365 days). This is rudimentary astronomy, yes, but the fact that we are perpetually spinning through space is a fact that came to shape my life more than I would have ever guessed.
The reason we don’t *feel* the Earth spinning is – amateur scientist alert! – the orbital speeds are constant. But imagine for a moment, that they were not. That every day, for perhaps 15 seconds, a sudden acceleration or deceleration occurred, so that you felt the Earth beneath you spin (ignore for a moment the Neil deGrasse Tyson voice in your brain telling you this would mean the planet would hurtle out of orbit!). And then those periods of acceleration began to grow. What once was an infrequent curiosity became at first daily, then hourly, then a seemingly never-ending occurrence.
From late 2015 through all of 2016, this was my reality. My world became a spinning nightmare from which I felt I could not escape. I was dizzy all the time. The sudden medical takeover of chronic dizziness was debilitating, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Without essential respites; some in the form of Marvel Comics, in family, and in the Chicago Cubs winning a World Series, I don’t know how I’d have made it through.
The earth’s rotation is constant. And nobody noticed but me. [Read more…] about My Secret Wars: Fighting Chronic Dizziness and Finding The Strength Not To Lose