I Was Thinking...  The Sound and Feel of It

Years ago, there was a movie about the invisible man. You might hear him talk and see what happened when he moved something, but you could not see him.
Recently, I had a similar experience. No, I did not have a transparent being invade my domicile; I felt the wind.
This spring we have had numerous days when we’ve had extreme gusts of wind. On a recent trip to Rochester, I could feel the wind buffeting my truck as I drove. I can’t imagine what it was doing to the semis that have huge flat surfaces that wind can push around.
Today after church, it was warming up and the sun shined on our deck, and it looked like an inviting place to sit and soak up some rays and read for a while. But the wind made it almost impossible to hold my book unless I moved my chair right in the corner protected by two walls of the house. I could hear the wind howling above me, could feel it blowing against me and see the results of its fury as tree limbs swayed and our poor little windmill in the garden was spinning at top speed.
I could take all that in with my senses, except that I could not “see” the wind. I could feel its effect against my skin, hear it rushing by and see what it did to the environment around me, but I couldn’t see it. It was this invisible force that I could perceive in many ways but not see. It is one of those miracles of nature that you know is there but can’t fully understand.
I know sometime in the past, some science teacher explained in great detail the reasons the wind blows.He probably went through the meteorological reasons that the differences in air pressure caused by solar warming did something that caused something that resulted in something that made the wind blow. Maybe I was daydreaming or checking out the cute girls in my science class, but I never quite absorbed the knowledge needed for me to understand something I can feel and hear but can’t see. But there are a lot of things in nature and life I experience but can’t understand.
One of the things I do remember from science class is that the sun is about 93 million miles away. What I don’t understand is how it is possible that it’s far enough away so it doesn’t burn up everything on earth but just close enough that it can warm us enough so we can live here. I also don’t know why if you are out in the sun a lot, it will lighten your hair but darken your skin. I have a basic understanding of gas. It is a liquid, combustible, and somehow comes from oil created underground from decaying organic matter. Well, anyway, I need it to run my car, truck, lawn mower, boat and chainsaw. It is getting too expensive and when I use it, eventually it is consumed and I need to go buy more. So, how is the sun just a huge ball of gas that continually burns but never is completely consumed? You could see why I became a history teacher and not a science teacher. But the sun and the wind aren’t the only things I don’t understand.
For me to find my way somewhere, I either consult a map (yes, I’m that old) or use the GPS on my phone or in the car. This still requires me to watch road signs and check out route numbers and street names. So, how is it possible for monarch butterflies to travel thousands of miles to some exact location in Mexico? Why doesn’t the wind ever push them off course like it did for Leif Ericson and Columbus?
I also don’t know how fish ever developed a taste for earthworms. Did a worm happen to go for a swim one day and a fish decided to eat one?
I can’t figure out why we never saw sea gulls flying around our farm until my dad started plowing and suddenly, they arrived by the hundreds.
Lastly, I still haven’t figured out how deer know they are supposed to cross the road by the signs the DOT puts up.
Did You Ever Wonder? — What is the speed of dark?