Paying Attention to the Future of the Wind

                                                       Moses Crossing the Red Sea -- Marc Chagall 

 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.  What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

John 3: 5-8 NRSVue

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too,
T'was the witch of November come stealin'.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the Gales of November came slashin'.
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind.

from The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald -- Gordon Lightfoot 

Back in April I wrote about a fascinating new book called The Breath of the Gods: The History and  Future of the Wind. I commented on the prodigious output of author Simon Winchester over the decades. Well, Winchester will put out no more, having died at the age having died earlier this month at the age of 82. The Breath of the Gods turned out to be his last gasp as an author and an impressive one at that. 

This is not a religious book by any stretch but he was thorough enough to note that there are plenty of references to wind and windy in the bible, 83 according to a 17th century Scottish cleric who obviously had a lot of time on his hands. Winchester is disparaging of the "somewhat overwrought" third chapter of John's gospel where Nicodemus visit Jesus by night. There are conservative Christians who insist that we must be "born again" to be true Christians but why not "wind-borne", given Jesus' words? I am partial to this passage myself. 

We live in an unsettling time of intensified winds around the planet, leading to catastrophic destruction due to supercharged wildfires and coastal waves. In our community we experienced a derecho a few years ago, as many others have. I had never heard of such a phenomenon until relatively recently. Even the jet stream is being affected by human-changed climate. Global Weirding, as climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe terms it. 

Maybe we need to be mindful of the once predictable zephyrs, breezes, and gales we can no longer take for granted. The metaphors abound but how humanity affects the wind and vice versa but attending to the wind is a practical spiritual matter as well. 

As it happens, this year marks the 50th anniversary of Gordon Lightfoot's hit song about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in a fierce November storm. 

In scripture wind can be both destructive and enlivening, sometimes in the same story. Think about the Red Sea exodus by the people of Israel and the mountain-shattering power of the Creator as the prophet Elijah stood before Yahweh. 

Simon Winchester may now have entered the eternal doldrums but I'm grateful for the breath of fresh air his book represented. Here is the link to my previous blog about The Breath of the Gods https://lionlamb-bowmanville.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-way-of-wind.html