How cool the wind – On biblical language and the weather

A few weeks ago, a boy died not far from where I live. He was twelve years old. Even before the local T.V. stations had confirmed his death, there were wild rumors that a child had gone missing. Some said that he had gone out to play during a storm and had been blown away. Those of us who saw one of the three tornadoes that struck southwestern Michigan on March 6, the Feast of Saint Colette of Corbie, had no trouble believing these stories. But the reports turned out to be false. The boy had died near home. He was cleaning his boots in the garage; there was a loud sound which neighbors mistook for lightning, and the roof collapsed. He was found by his parents. But there was a ghost of truth in the story that had been making the rounds on Friday evening at places like the Elks Club (which remained open for a fish fry despite losing power): the story, like something from folk legend, of the boy taken by the wind. “Moments before his death,” his parents said, he had “commented on how cool the wind looked.”