Square with the World

It probably took me 8 years at our old house before I figured out which direction was east. There's a big curve in the road --a rather unnoticeable and gentle curve-- and also some not-square "corners" (at highway intersections) that make it easy to think you're driving west on our old street when you're really driving south. Further complicating the matter, "liturgical east" (that is, the end of the church building that contained the altar) was in the "east" as my senses intuited. Problem is, "east" was actually north.

Eventually I learned that the sun rises in the southeast at Christmas and in the northeast in early summer. And thus I eventually got my bearings, with the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. My parents, however, not living in the place, continued with the same problem I had, sensing that the sun was rising in the south and setting in the north, even though their brains knew better. After many years, my dad's brain got it all straight, but his senses just wouldn't let go of that first impression. He said that he could be driving to our house, straight across Stateline Road, and everything was square and right with the world. But as soon as he turned onto our road, the whole world "spun" 90° in his senses. And I knew precisely what he was talking about, since I'd lived with the same feeling for so long.

This is one reason I think it's important that maps go on the north wall, so that places are lined up in the world with where they appear on the map. But the reason I bring up this story is because sometimes the same sudden "spin" will occur mentally. (More on that later.)