I was sitting on the couch the other night when I suddenly remembered the fable “The Fox and the Grapes” that I heard as a child.In the story, the fox said the grapes were sour when he couldn’t eat them, and the story went like this.
Autumn came and the grapes in the orchard were ripe.The grapes were hanging on the shelves, some were green like jewels, some were purple like crystals, and they looked especially delicious.At this time, a fox who had been hungry for days walked slowly to the edge of the orchard, his stomach empty and hungry.
The fox looked up and saw the watery grapes, his eyes lit up: “Wow!These grapes look so good, I must eat them all!”Said, it stretched its paws to pick, but the grapevine is too high, how to jump can not reach.
Unwilling to do so, the fox looked around and found a short stump on the ground.It hurriedly climbed up, stood higher, and jumped a few times, but still did not pick.The fox was so tired that he sat down on the stump to rest, and his stomach was still growling.
The more it thought about it, the more angry it got: “Today is really unlucky, can’t even eat a grape.”But even though he was angry, he couldn’t help staring at the grapes.
After a while, the fox sighed, lowered its head to think, and suddenly laughed.It said to itself, “In fact, these grapes are definitely not delicious, look pretty, maybe sour and astringent, I will not eat it!Even if someone gave them to me, I wouldn’t bother to take them.”
After saying this, the fox patted his stomach and looked back at the grapes a few times as he walked away, then slowly left.
The truth behind the story
In fact, the fox didn’t really think the grapes were bad, but because he couldn’t reach them himself, he said the grapes were sour.This is a kind of “self-compassionate” way to alleviate his feeling of loss.
What does this story tell us?
When we can’t get something, we sometimes deliberately devalue it to make ourselves feel better.This is called “sour grapes”.Although this can make us happy for a while, in the long run, we still have to face the reality and accept the limitations of our own abilities, or try to improve ourselves to get what we want.
This story reminds us: don’t deny the goodness of something just because you can’t have it, but learn to face your own desires and limitations.
