After my book group tonight, we were standing around and talking and someone mentioned the idea of a bike hike on a particular freeway. And I thought to myself that it sounded like an easy ride, because it would be basically downhill. But I don't know this particular highway so I had no basis for thinking that. So why did I?
I quickly realized that I have a construct in my head - not a belief, mind you, but a vague idea - that if you're travelling from North to South, you're going downhill. Sure, there may be various ups and downs along the way, but it's essentially downhill. And vice-versa: if you're travelling South to North you're going uphill.
Of course this makes no sense. But I grew up in an area where the mountains are always to the North, so North has always been uphill. And when we give directions, we use the words that way: you travel 'up' to Canada or 'down' to San Diego.
Thinking about it, I'm sure there have been many times when I've been travelling upon a more or less flat stretch of the 5 while in my head I felt like I was going either uphill or downhill.
Weird.
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