I’m lucky enough to have a window in my office, but right now all I see are barren tree limbs blowing in the icy wind. Ironically, the word “window” evolved from the Old Norse vindauga which means “wind eye.”
Only my eyes are experiencing the wind today, but for most of history I wouldn’t have been so lucky. Early windows didn’t have glass. They were just holes in a wall or ceiling that people covered with shutters or animal skin. That started to change in the Middle Ages, but even then glass windows were a luxury. They didn’t become common until at least the 17th century.
It’s a good reminder not to take what we have for granted.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-brief-scientific-history-of-glass-180979117
