Windmills

http://3d.xkcd.com/556/

               For those of you who do not know, wind powered generators dot the horizon around Conception. For the most part they go unnoticed save for the calm nights where a faint whoosh...whoosh…whoosh… can be heard. Now, in all technicality, these enormities are not windmills since they do not mill anything. Yet I refer to them as windmills. I apologize if this insults your sensibilities. Deal with it.

               Two things baffle me about these behemoth structures. First, how do they get those little red lights on top to blink on and off at the same time? Secondly, how is it that one windmill turns quickly, while the adjacent windmill barely manages to move at all?

               This calls a certain verse to mind: “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; ….”  John 3:8a. How is that for taking a verse out of context? No matter how much you stretch the meaning of multivalence, I doubt that one could say that Christ was referring in any way to wind turbines.

For me, windmills serve as a reminder that comparisons are unfair.

               I am no engineer. I do not understand what it takes for a windmill to move. Perhaps a particular slow windmill is actually generating more electricity than the windmill adjacent to it. It is doing its job better, yet being judged as inferior in comparison to its neighbor. Perhaps a stationary windmill is undergoing repairs   or upgrades.

               If something as simple as a wind turbine cannot be understood by a simpleton such as myself, how can the complexities of a human person be understood? I tend to make excuses for other people –this is probably carryover from the plethora of excuses I make for myself-. I don’t really have a point to make in all this, it is just something that I think about.

But if I did have to make a point, I would say that  I AM GOING TO CALL THEM WINDMILLS. Don’t judge me!