The Wind is Good and Bad
By Shane Timson
For High Plains Public Radio Readers Club, I'm Shane Timpson in Colby, Kansas.
When I talk to people about living out here or when people come to visit,
a lot of people will say they like it out here. But when the wind starts to blow, they go,
“I can't get used to this wind.”
That was one of the things that my wife said when she moved out here from the Kansas City area. She goes, “there's a lot of things I like about western Kansas, but I don't like the wind.”
And even people that have lived here all their lives, the way the winds have been blowing so far in 2026, even natives to this area said they don't like
how high the wind has been lately.
So, I suppose it's no accident that I chose to talk about Heaven's Breath, the History of the Wind by Lyle Wilson.
This book was written in 1984, and part of me wonders how much of the science has changed from what he wrote in ‘84 to present day 2026. It would be interesting if there was an updated version of this book out here. But nevertheless, we'll deal with what we have here.
I will admit some of this – actually quite a bit of this-- book actually went over my head.
I mean, it's great for the science nerd. I'm not a science nerd. But there was enough here. I finished the whole book. Some of the interesting takeaway is how he talks about how insects were created, of how within the insect, they have a way to deal with high winds. You would think the insect would be destroyed. But no, they are equipped to handle those winds. And I found that to be quite interesting.
In fact, in a way, he kind of contradicts himself. At the very beginning of the book, he talks about how the earth -- basically, he believes in the Big Bang Theory, where all this came out of nothing. And he said that wind had a big part of it. But I disagree, just because right there, where I talked about where insects have the ability to endure high winds.
I believe that there was a Creator behind that. You don't just get those kind of skills built into your DNA on accident. So, I don't agree with the Big Bang Theory that the author ascribes to.
Some other interesting statistics that he talks about in this book are how the wind
has an effect on us. Not just in the physical. You know, like with outside,
like the wind can get high up and it can blow our crops away and cause other physical damage.
But the wind can also affect our mood. He suggests that on days where the wind blows higher than 60 miles an hour for several days in a row, suicide rates go up much higher than on days where the wind isn't blowing as hard.
It was a key part of navigation in the early days. The wind would tell you what direction you were going.You could also use the wind to kind of tell if a storm was coming.
So, the wind has got its good and its bad, but regardless of how you feel about the wind out here on the high plains, it's going to keep blowing.
But we need the wind. The wind helps the currents of our oceans which is key. The wind does a lot. for us, even the bad parts of the wind.
So, the next time you are out here on the high plains and that wind is going and you feel like cursing at the wind, maybe give a breath of thanks to the wind for all it does.
