Why the Earth keeps turning

A young man with an evasive expression approached me asking for some change. He seemed young enough, and, although tanned, clearly of privileged European descent, not an illegal immigrant, not hiding in the country unable to work, not undergroung after a declined asylum application. I smiled meekly and moved away, shaking my head slightly as a negative to his request. He said "Your should give me something for my trouble. For a very long time I made sure the Earth kept moving, day and night followed each other and the rhythm of time as you know it remained uninterrupted." I was unsure what to say but I was waiting for the traffic lights to change and was circumstantially and momentarily stuck where I was and thus perfectly able to hear him. "I was made to pay for a small miscalculation", he said, "someone else would have just let it all stop." "Let me get this right", I said, "you made the Eart move?" "No, I was ordered to maintain the Earth's movement around its orbit as a consequence of a minor indiscretion." "So the Earth was moving before you moved it?" "Quite. But the responsibility of maintaining the motion was transferred to me - look, the Earth has always moved, and it has always been a divine responsibility to keep the ball rolling if you catch my drift. I make a bad move, you know, wrong place, wrong time, next thing I know I have to take on the role, tread the surface like a circus ball to keep on top, to keep things moving. So I do, and let me tell you, that's one job you don't get a break from. You can't even sleep. So all I want now is to find the next gin palace and drink myself to oblivion. So you got some change?" The light had turned to green so I moved on. I didn't have any change to give him, and anyway: Who is doing it now if he's free? Anyway, below the his rant about what it was like during the episode. Go figure.

--Compared to the fat dum-dum Atlas I am tall, sexy and smart. That is why I cannot believe he got the hype and I am not even a footnote in some anthology. After all, I walk the earth endlessly to keep it from stopping and all life coming to an end.
You might ask how I ended up with this task, this never-ending piddle-paddling, treading the ball like some ridiculous circus creature but to no applause or treats or bright lights. I lost a bar fight, I am sorry to say, not a battle at war, nothing grand, nothing honourable. I will not delve into the details of how it all started, suffice it to say that it was a mistake, and aroused the anger of the big Z as well as her boyfriend at the time –or one of them, so far as I know – and I wish I had not, although she was a real little lamb, sweet plum-mouthed Hebe with long lashes and the self-knowledge of a woman far beyond her years.
The way that things turned out was that I was ordained by a great and quite a pissed off divinity to perpetuate the energy unleashed by the initial grand cosmic push to help the earth spin around its orbit. I do not fully understand the rationale or the physics. Were I to be killed by another deity, or by Zeus himself, as could happen were he blind drunk, would all life come to an end, or is it something that they say to convince the world (mortal and immortal) that no help should be forthcoming despite my pleas. My queries are, naturally, hypothetical in nature, as I have no control over my fate, actions or future. I can’t stop; and I cannot be stopped. Thank you, Zeus, for this gift that just keeps on giving. As slight consolation, after I had prayed for a long time to be graced with somnambulism, my request was granted, otherwise I would never be able to get any rest. So I walk along, the reason for the seasons and the unsung hero of the mortal world. I would be grateful if my accomplishments and my burden were recorded in some way, even as a myth, even if it were then thought to be a pack of lies. I would like a fleeting thought, at least. It gets so lonely on the move.--