On Heaven’s Breath: A Natural History of the Wind by Lyall Watson
By Marit Ehmke
Hello Radio Readers! This is Marit Ehmke coming to you from west-central Kansas in Lane County. If there’s one thing you can count on living in this part of the world, it’s the wind. Whether it be a gentle breeze or, more often than not, strong gusts bending what trees we have, the wind is a constant companion. For better or worse, it’s a dominant, dynamic feature of the Great Plains landscape. The book “Heaven’s Breath: A Natural History of the Wind” by Lyall Watson is an excellent science-based resource that illuminates this often-overlooked characteristic of our world and how our lives are shaped by it.
From physics and biology to psychology and philosophy, this text covers everything about wind plus surprising aspects you may not have considered. Watson writes an often poetic ode to this force of nature, and it is also encyclopedic in its accounts and definitions of wind -- in fact, the book includes an appendix of a “dictionary of winds” where you can find the description of every wind known to man.
I paid particular attention to the mentions of Kansas, where graphic descriptions of tornadoes are truly terrifying, while at the same time, Watson writes, “These wayward winds seem also to have a sense of the ridiculous,” citing examples such as a house being ripped apart with a cupboard of fine china set down still intact. Reading such excerpts made me wonder at the capriciousness or intentionality of nature, given how we often personify the world around us.
In chronicling the history of the wind, Watson cleverly chronicles our species’ evolution. For instance, trade winds influenced modern life and culture, and without them, our present would be unrecognizable. Every sailing venture to another faraway place was made possible, in large part, because of wind.
We owe much of who we are to the winds that shape our daily lives in ways that range from very subtle to absolutely undeniable. In the same way wind erodes rock, our environment forges us -- makes us who we are and who we will become.
It’s also interesting the way we talk about wind: “Languages themselves have become windblown. Something as elusive as the wind is obviously fair game for those tired of the usual similes. Shakespeare made his winds swift, free and wanton. Others have called them fast, fickle, and wild. Wind is almost anything you want it to be. There are few things as steady or as changeable, as fierce or as gentle, as unstable or as undeviating, as light or as bold, as wroth, as balmy, or a protean as wind.”
If you’re someone who enjoys science-based books that are dense and also digestible, “Heaven’s Breath: A Natural History of the Wind” by Lyall Watson is for you. Think Carl Sagan-type descriptions of the universe in relation to all that wind has to offer us and our planet.
This is Marit Ehmke for Radio Reader Book Club signing off from western Lane County.
Marit is a filmmaker and farmer who grew up on a wheat farm in western Kansas. She earned a B.S. in Journalism: News and Information from the University of Kansas with distinction as a member of the Kappa Tau Alpha journalism honor society. Marit moved to Bozeman, MT, in 2015 to work at the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. She joined the Science and Natural History Filmmaking MFA program in 2020 with a focus on rural life and agriculture. She now resides in western Kansas and is excited to make films about the area, including films about the Ogallala Aquifer and her family. Find more at https://maritehmke.com/
