What has Changed?
By Glenda Shepard
I'm Glenda Shepard from Yucca Corners Farm in Stanton County KS. This is my Radio Readers BookByte for Heaven's Breath: A Natural History of the Wind by Lyall Watson.
When I first started this book, I was a little intimidated. It has thousands of scientific and Latin names, most of which I kind of glided over. Gliding is a frequent topic in the book.
The book's inside cover says the author studied wind in at least 8 different "-ologys" or fields and promised a new understanding of a force we in Southwest Kansas take for granted.
The book's copyright is 1984, and that was a problem for me. Reading a 46-year-old book on a topic, the weather, that I check at least twice daily, felt outdated, but the further I read, the more I realized Watson was fulfilling the promise of my new understanding of the wind. The author died in 2006. If only I could read his take on the weather and winds of today.
In several chapters I realized Watson had predicted environments we live with today. In an NPR article dated 4/15/2026, Pope Francis in 2015 accepted scientific information confirming climate change as fact.
Chapter One: The Physics of Wind didn't sail (pun intended) completely over my head.
Chapter Two: The Geography of Wind I really enjoyed, but then I play World Geography on my phone.
Chapter 3: The History of Wind ended with the section The Winds of War and discussed wind as a factor in warfare in naval operations and visibility. P. 113 "the winds of war did not blow their (the British) way exclusively." Whoever the winds of war favored, foe or friend used wind and the conditions it generated for its own purposes. Fog hovering over London prevented nightly German bombing. Jet aircraft flew on the winds of war to crash into the World Trade Centers. Ironically, on p. 227 Watson praises those tall buildings for not yet giving any cause for alarm. Watson was looking at aerodynamic wind forces, but unbeknown to him, he was looking in the wrong direction. The winds of war destroyed the World Trade Centers.
In Chapter 4: Wind and Life Watson portrayed World War 1 as the lesser of two evils. "Influenza had killed more people than the World War." (P. 139) Google confirmed Spanish influenza in 1917-1919 killed 30 to 50 million people, more people than died from WWI. That influenza was spread by the wind. The wind was still blowing in 2019 when COVID blew in. With his death in 2006, Watson didn't get the chance to study how COVID would spread. Because he could not have known COVID's worldwide impact, his account of the Spanish Influenza left a gaping hole for me. But the wind of life that killed 30 to 50 million people in 1917-1919 has been stifled by modern medicine. Vaccines, ventilators, and the nature of COVID have kept total fatalities from 2019 to
the present at only 7.1 million people. Compare that loss to 30 to 50 million from Spanish Influenza.
In Chapter 5: Watson used a tactic of making a mysterious statement to hook a reader. For example, the section Windseeds, begins "Frogs, dogs, pomegranates and people have a great deal in common." From that mystifying sentence you are caught up with his explanation, which includes p. 157 "a sneeze is the Rolls Royce of bacterial vehicles. With acceleration from a standing start to 400 meters per second, almost the speed of sound, a sneeze generates as many as a million drops of various sizes, most of them infected. "In the section Windspores P.162 "walking through farmland on a clear summer's day anywhere in the British countryside you are likely to find yourself inhaling . . .at least sixty microscopic mushrooms with each lungful of air." My farmer husband who doesn't like mushrooms, has nevertheless inhaled enough mushrooms to make "a fungus among us".
In Chapter 6: The Sociology of Wind Watson refers to the yearly flight of millions of monarch butterflies filling the air from Mexico to California to Canada. P. 194 "the horde of monarch butterflies . . keeps relentlessly on, heading south by southwest regardless of wind direction." The wind still blows but the monarch butterflies are more scarce than relentless.
In Chapter 7: The Physiology of Wind Watson credits p. 212 “ Wind is an important training factor in our growth and development, improving and exercising our sense of balance.” When I was about 10, I rode my bicycle in Richfield KS when a direct hard wind lifted the roof off my parents’ café . I pedaled around and watched it all without even a wobble on my bicycle. Watson was right, I had balance. Despite Trump's denials of climate change, Watson predicted in 1984 what is fact in 2026.
Living in rural Stanton County, which has more cattle than people, I breathe the methane p. 235 "being farted about by ruminant animals."
With Chapter 8: The Perception of Wind Watson shifted focus to how humans see the wind. We can't see the wind. It is invisible. The perceptions of the wind and the weather it creates tell more about the writers and their culture than about the actual wind. The perception of weather changes through history, from medieval times when weather was an enemy to less hostile and at times appreciated by the 20th century.
In Chapters 9 and 10: Psychology and Philosophy of Wind Watson told of
what humans have attributed to the wind. We personify wind with warmth or evil intentions. Wind's philosophy depends on which philosopher you consult.
Giving credit where credit is due, I appreciated the aids:
1. A conversion chart from metric to customary measures
2. A dictionary of winds
3. A bibliography that's easy to refer to numerical in the text and numerical in the bibliography just match the numbers
4. A thorough index
Heaven's Breath got me out of my comfort zone. I hadn't read a book of such depth since my college years. Thanks to Watson's book, I definitely have a greater understanding of--the wind.
I'm Glenda Shepard and thanks for listening to my Radio Readers BookByte of Heaven's Breath, one of HPPR'S Radio Readers Book Club’s selections for the 2026 Fall Read: Wind and Weather.
