Everest

   The picture below is taken from an article I read in The New York Times about the retrieval of three mountain climbers bodies from Mount Everest. The three climbers had died the year earlier, and an expedition was sent to retrieve them for burial.

   Disturbing and sad, I also found the picture strange, the elements in it difficult to decipher. At first, I thought that I was looking at the climber's left arm and upper torso, thinking that perhaps his jacket had ridden up as he lay dying. I continued to see the body in this way, even though the article described a body being bent like a horseshoe.  I just wasn't convinced that it was this one.

   As I continued to look at it, I began to see it differently, and as the accompanying article had described it. I was able to visualize the area with the letters on it (I later looked it up to see the brand is called "Millet") as the right lower leg, the left side as the arched torso, and the head as being submerged in the snow or facing left, away from the photographer's aim.

   To see such a familiar thing as a body in a way that it is nearly unrecognizable as such is a fascinating thing, and I imagine that people that find mutilated or decomposed bodies sometimes experience similar sensations. 

   I am reminded that the safety of the familiar also tempers my ability to see more freely.