The Man in the Mountain

Can you see the man in this mountain? I couldn't either.

They say there’s a Man in Red Mountain north of Phoenix, Arizona. That’s what friends have told me, though I’ve never seen him personally. When the sun hits the mountains just right, if you are in the right location, the shadows create the face of a man in the rocky wall of the mountain. But all the Native American lore, heightened conversation, and leaning out of chairs to gain a glimpse has not been enough for me to see the Man in Red Mountain. I guess I haven’t been standing in the right spot when the sun hits it right. You would think that with all the commotion about something as permanent as stone and you would be able to see it.

Sometimes things are known to be true until they’re looked at from a different perspective or in a different light. Then it’s understood that what was thought to be one way is actually quite different. In order to really see what’s on the mountain, it all depends on where you are and when you’re there. As with many things, there isn’t always a cut and dry answer, even to questions like do you see the man in the mountain. Knowledge and information actually depend on a whole series of factors that may produce a series of different answers, which explains why things that we know to be true become questioned. Elevation is another example of something that is perceived to be objective but is actually quite subjective and averaged.

Elevation is a measurement of the distance that a place, like Red Mountain, is above sea level. It is a place’s height, if you will. It seems easy enough to believe something as measurable as elevation, except elevation has to start somewhere, and that somewhere is entirely unsettled. The ocean ebbs and flows due to tides and gravity on a daily basis, so this fixed distance as a guide isn’t so fixed. The established reference point where the edge of the ocean meets the edge of the beach ebbs and flows with these tides, as much as ten to twenty feet.

Where would you mark sea level? Where the water is, or where it is going to be?

In order to get this average, scientists have to consider the daily changes to the tides over a period of 18.6 years just to get the most accurate average of sea level. This really brings to home the idea of a fluctuation of information. Not to mention, the baseline in which we measure the height of things like mountains changes because of the tides, and this is only really the baseline at two distinct moments in each day.

This concept of using sea level as the basis of elevation is a bit skewed as well, since the earth is an ellipse and not a sphere. Using measurements from sea level, therefore, don’t take this into account because these measurements are constant across the world, but the world bulges at the equator. If measurements for elevation are made from the center of the earth and not from sea level, then Mount Chimborazo is the highest mountain in the world because it’s distance from the center of the earth is greater than that of Mount Everest.

Red Mountain is 1,871 feet, give or take the average tides in Baja, Mexico 182 miles away.

And this is why I say that information is fluid. Things that were considered such a constant, rules and definitions that were taught as infallible, can be so variable. Averaged and debatable. And if the light just hits one bit of information in a different way, casting different shadows, giving different answers, seen again at a different time and in a different light, this shows us to there are often no real cut and dry answers, but a world of nuance, timing, and multiplicity. And if you arrive at the right time, and are in the right place, you can see a mans face in a mountain 1,871 feet tall, give or take ten feet.