The Wind and the Sun

High above the world, where clouds drift and skies stretch on forever, the Wind and the Sun had an argument.

"I am the stronger," boomed the Wind, swirling dramatically. "I can topple trees! I can drive ships across oceans! Nothing can stand against me!"

"Strength isn't only about force," the Sun replied warmly. "There is more than one kind of power."

"Nonsense," said the Wind. "Let us have a contest. Do you see that traveler on the road below? Whoever can make him remove his coat first — wins."

The Sun nodded. "Very well. You go first."

---

The Wind pulled itself together, gathered every gust and gale at its command, and blew.

Down on the winding road, the traveler suddenly felt the air change. The trees bent. The leaves flew sideways. The Wind howled around him in great freezing swirls, tugging at his coat, tearing at his hat, trying with all its might to rip that coat right off his back.

But the traveler just ducked his head and pulled the coat tighter. He wrapped his arms around himself. He leaned into the gale. The harder the Wind blew, the more desperately the traveler clung to his coat — holding on with both fists, hunched low against the blast.

The Wind blew until it was breathless. The coat stayed put.

"Enough," said the Sun. "My turn."

---

The Wind sulked behind a cloud. The Sun slid out and began to shine.

Not fiercely. Not dramatically. Just warmly — the way the Sun always does when it means to be kind.

The golden light spread over the meadow and the road and the traveler's shoulders. The air grew calm. The birds began to sing. Flowers turned their faces upward. And slowly, gradually, the traveler felt the warmth settle over him like a blanket.

He unclenched his fists. He lifted his head. He loosened the button at his collar.

Another moment of that lovely warmth, and he shrugged off one sleeve. Then the other. And then he folded his coat neatly over his arm, tilted his face up to the blue sky, and smiled.

---

From behind the cloud, the Wind watched in disbelief.

"How?" it muttered. "I pushed with everything I had."

"That was exactly the problem," said the Sun gently. "The harder you pushed, the harder he held on. I didn't push at all. I just made the world feel a little warmer."

The Wind had nothing to say to that.

Below, the traveler walked on through the sunny meadow, coat over his arm, whistling a song he didn't know he knew. He had no idea he'd just settled one of the oldest arguments in the sky.

But the Sun knew. And it kept right on shining.