Story of the sun and the wind
I can’t remember if it was my mother or father who told me this particular story, but it’s one of my favourites (next to the stone soup story, of course). Either way, my father and mother would frequently use metaphors and stories involving the sun for me, seeing as I’m named for the Sun God. Dino is an anglicised version of Dinu, which is a shortened form of …
Almost let it slip. I don’t give out my full first name to everyone. It’s too special to share. The story behind it is quite interesting, but I’ll save that for another day. I digress. So anyway, one of the things my father used to tell me all the time is, “If a dog barks at the sun, does the sun stop shining?” Of course not! It sort of reminds me to keep things in perspective when others start getting angry and doing hurtful things. No need to be a doormat, but there’s also no need to pull yourself down to that level, and copy their techniques.
So, back to the story.
One winter morning, the Sun and the Wind were having a chat. They started listing their accomplishments, and got into a disagreement about who was the more powerful being. Sun and Wind saw a man walking down a long path on his way home.
“Whoever can get that man to remove his coat faster will be the winner,” said Wind. Sun quietly agreed, and let Wind go first. Wind called up a particularly frigid blast from the North Pole. He let fly a gale that flew into the man’s face. The man leaned into the oncoming blast, and wrapped his coat around himself even tighter. The harder that Wind tried to prise the coat from the man’s vise-like grip, the tighter the man held onto his coat. Eventually, the wind puffed a breath of exhaustion and said, “I give up! I don’t know what you plan on doing, but good luck! That man really likes his coat.”
And then, Sun smiled.
As he smiled, his rays washed over the land, bathing it in a warming glow. Sun kept smiling. The man kept walking. In a few minutes, he felt the warmth of Sun reaching through the coat, all the way down to his core. Without thinking, he removed his coat, and slung it over one arm, as he walked home, whistling a jaunty tune.
Wind gave Sun a withering look.
Sun smiled.
