Years ago, my wife accompanied me to a speaking assignment in the Mesa, Arizona, area. We stayed at a motel near the Superstition Mall. On Saturday morning, we decided to take a walk. A sidewalk encircled the buildings and the parking lot of the Mall. We had only walked a few steps when I realized that I was looking at something unusual. Landscapers had planted some kind of deciduous tree at close intervals just next to the sidewalk nearly all the way around the mall. And every one of the trees was leaning—not just inclining — leaning at a precipitous angle toward the west. I could feel the wind on my face as we walked eastward on the south side of the Mall. It was not strong that morning, but it was constant. I wondered how many hours and days it had blown against those trees to push them so consistently and completely out of shape.
