Wind And What Is

Poul Anderson, 1988 A. D. IN Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), pp. 95-101.

By now we notice every reference to the wind in Poul Anderson's works and this is a good one. On Twin Peaks:

"Wind boomed, full of sea. It was too cold to stand in for long." (p. 99)

But Manse Everard and Wanda Tamberly enjoy standing in it for a while. We have all had experiences like that.

Wanda says that it is hard to get in touch with her feelings, then accuses herself of:

"'Psychobabble!'" (p. 98)

Each of us can criticize him- or herself. I overheard a guy saying:

"My ex-wife was coming out with all this psychobabble..."

Extremely insensitive! - or so I thought, at least.

The two Patrol agents reflect on their work:

"We guard what is. We may not ask whether it should be. We had best not ask what 'is' means." (p. 99)

Someone has to ask whether it should be! And philosophers will always ask what "is" means.