Monday Tidbit: Do Rivers Run ... Up?

One day when my father and I were walking the pier at Charlotte Beach, where the Genesee River dumps into Lake Ontario, he looked at me and said, “Isn’t it amazing that this river flows into the lake?”

I had no idea what he was talking about. “What’s so amazing?”

“The river,” he pointed out. “It runs south to north.”

South to north? How was that possible? Rivers can’t run ... upwards.

Standing on the pier, knowing that Lake Ontario was north of Rochester, and that the Genesee River was indeed flowing from Rochester up into the lake, I couldn’t rightly disagree.

Still, I didn’t believe my father. Instead, when I got home, I did research on the Internet.

Know what I found? My father was right. Additionally, the Genesee River is one of many rivers running south to north.

I learned that the Niagara River is another south to north running river.

Imagine that, one of the Seven Wonders of the World---Niagara Falls--is a waterfall that actually falls south to north. It falls, if you will, up.

Now I’m just being silly, but it is true that both the Genesee River and Niagara River, including Niagara Falls, are rivers that run south to north. But this is all based on perception.

North, south, east, west . . . these are directions.

North isn’t really up.

South isn’t really down.

The earth is spherical. It is a ball. There is no up or down when it comes to north and south.

The simple scientific fact is that water only flows from a higher point to a lower point, regardless of if the water is traveling in a northern, southern, eastern or western direction.

Makes you wonder though, how many things in life do we miss out on because we perceive things incorrectly, without getting all of the facts?

Thomas Phillips,
Author of the suspense thriller, The Molech Prophecy