A Retell Of “The North Wind And The Sun”
Embrace values and wisdom — and make them part of our life story that we are proud to tell.
This is a retelling of Aesop’s fable “The North Wind And The Sun”.
The moral of the original story is that gentleness (the warm heat of the Sun) is mightier than forcefulness (the forceful blowing of the Wind). The original fable tells the story of the Wind’s unsuccessful attempt to get a man to remove his coat while the Sun’s gentle warmth of heat makes the man do it without any hassle.
The reverse is also true.
Here is my own retelling of this story:
Once upon a time, the Wind and the Sun were always at loggerheads with each other. One day they decided that they should start a competition to see who is the stronger between them.
Looking down from the sky, they saw a man trudging along on a long road leading to his house. The man was sick and having a fever that very day and he was perspiring from the physically challenging walk.
The Wind blurted out:
“This man is walking too slowly. It will take ages for him to reach his house. Let’s see who can get him to run!”
“You will start first!” the Wind continued.
And so the Sun started shining gently on the man.
The gentle heat of the Sun put a further toil on the man. No matter how gently the Sun shone, the slightest heat dissipation from the Sun still took a final beating on the man. The man became so fatigued that he was unable to continue walking anymore.
The Wind then said:
“I will blow on this man now to help him run!”
And as the Wind started blowing, the man could feel the coolness of the air surrounding him and he began to run along with the help of the Wind blowing.
The stronger that the Wind was blowing, the faster the man was running without too much effort of his own.
The forcefulness of the Wind is helping the man to run.
The moral of the story is that the reverse is also true — that forcefulness (the forceful blowing of the Wind) is mightier than gentleness (the warm heat of the Sun).
So it is with our life. There are no right or wrong answers in life. To get a man to remove his coat on the one hand, and to get a man to run on the other hand — these are two totally different scenarios. We cannot apply the same principles in different circumstances.
While we can be gentle in how we approach people and problems, we must not forget to have the wisdom to know that sometimes force is inevitable to get things done.
There will be times when we need to be gentle while there will also be times when we need to be forceful and vice versa.
Our individual perspectives determine the decisions we make in the course of our life. Being mutable and willing to adapt to unfamiliar situations will lead us a long way to making better decisions.
The story has not ended yet.
Here is the continuation of the story:
The man finally reached his house. He was greeted by his wife who wondered why he reached home earlier than usual.
The man answered:
“I bet you can’t believe this! Even though I am sick today, I was met with a kind wind that literally blew me home!”
The moral of the story is that anything can happen in our life. The conflict and challenge between the Sun and the Wind on that very day when the man was sick inadvertently helped the sick man reach home safely with the help of the Wind.
Cheers everyone!
