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THE first part of the story is simple and well known
enough. There's this fox jumping up and down under a bunch of grapes high
upon a vine which he just can't reach no matter how hard he tries. So after
a while when he's almost collapsing with a furiously failing heart he
finally gives up and remarks to a passing crow watching his antics, " Aaah,
what the hell, they're probably sour anyway." A classic example of a false
denial of desire for something sought but not acquired. A feigning of
disdain for that which one could not attain. The simple idiom is often used
to refer to one expressing, in an unsportsmanlike way, anger or frustration
at having failed to acquire something. The sore loser.
The second
part of the story, however, is more complex and less well known. So the fox
continues his perambulations till he comes to a citrus grove with one tree
in it full of ripe and bursting lemons. And this time they're also hanging
so ridiculously within his reach that before you know it he's pocketed a
dozen--- little realising their taste. He bites down hard on one and just
before he's about to reach out the acrid sourness that invades and burns his
taste buds he spies the same crow watching him again. Swallowing the acidic
inflow with an intensely painful smile, he says to her, " My, these lemons
are really sweet but, sorry, I don't think I can share them with you."
Because, obviously,if he does, the game's up. It's what happens
when you're stuck with things you don't like but which you find you have to
become unfairly fond of, for no rhyme or reason except an ego bigger than a
barn. Not only are a lot of us doomed to possess all kinds of unpleasant and
unnecessary stuff because we've added a false positive value to them but,
under pain of being discovered, we can't share them with other either. It's
a very lonely and lost kind of infatuation and, after a time, the hate for
the taste of those lemons begins ruling our lives. That's when we begin
hating the crow for always being there to witness our spectacular self-
afflicted tragedies. And thus, too, we begin hating others while outwardly
claiming that they're actually "sweet" people.
Unfortunately, the solution doesn't lie in shouting from rooftops:
"I apologise! Those grapes were really sweet after all! And these
stupid lemons I've got--- they're sour as hell!" It's not going to
solve anything because everyone knows that already. Fortunately , admitting,
"I've been an idiot; do you think you can live with that ?" almost always
works. |
