Phantom Limb

First of all, I must confess I stole the title for this post from my brother-in-law's blog. When I saw he'd written a post entitled "Phantom Limb," I'll admit the subject brought to mind something completely different than what he wrote.

So here's my take on the subject of Phantom Limbs:

I'm about to confess to something that, on the surface, sounds weird. It sounds weird even after you've thought about it for a bit-- that is, if you think about it as I do.

Once and a while, I feel like my head has been put on my body sideways.

It's the oddest feeling, as you can well imagine. I don't know if it has to do with how I sleep, or if I've got some strange degenerative nerve disorder that one day is going to cause my head to spin to the left or right 90 degrees or more and remain there.

The only way I can rid myself of this sensation is to take a walk, all the while canting my head in the opposite direction from whence it feels it's being pulled. Thus, if I suddenly become aware that my head feels like it's spun 90 degrees to the left, I have to take a walk, all the while turning my head to the right. Usually, ten or fifteen minutes' walking (with the occasional bump or stumble because I'm not really looking where I"m going) the phenomenon goes away.

I've experienced this odd feeling often, and have had since as long as I can remember. Probably some chiropractor out there would tell me it's something to do with how my neck bones and tendons and muscles are aligned. I just hope it's not aliens or something.

And if you think that's weird, I won't even go into the times I've felt it might be easier to sleep if I could take my arms off.

Fortunately, no less than Charles M. Schulz understands exactly what I mean: