Green-Eyed Monsters and Good Samaritans by Leonard Mann

Author:Leonard Mann [Leonard Mann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2008-09-06T16:16:00+00:00

Sour Grapes

May we sometimes have an attitude that may properly be called a sour grapes syndrome? Consider the fable of the fox and the grapes:

The fox was a hungry vixen. For some time she had been unsuccessful hunting for hares and other small game and had been unable to find any fruits or berries. Famished for food, she came upon a garden where grapes hung ripe and red on the gardener's trellis. Looking at them, she could almost taste their juicy goodness.

Being a fox, and therefore not a climber, she could only reach the grapes by leaping, but the luscious clusters were beyond her reach. Try as she would, she was unable to jump high enough. As she frantically repeated her efforts, she became tired and her leaps grew shorter and shorter, until she could barely lift herself off the ground.

At last, having failed completely to taste even a little of the delicious fruit, she turned up her nose, assumed an air of casual indifference, and hoping no other foxes had seen her, turned and walked away. Her parting words were, "0 well, they were probably sour anyway!" How would she know? But perhaps she found comfort in that thought; perhaps it helped her to deal with defeat.

Do we ever fail to get what we want and excuse ourselves by saying it wasn't worth the wanting? Take Roger, for example: defeated in his race for the state senate, he said, "No matter; that's a thankless and low-paying job anyway." To which Caroline responded, "Roger, that is sour grapes, and you know it!"

So what? To say sour grapes is a lot better than "I'm a failure." Sometimes, too, the grapes really are sour and not worth the jumping.

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