Why do I envy people with simple lives?
A neighbor who is happy fixing his car. A friend who never asks what her life means. The pull toward them can be sharp. It looks like a wish for simplicity, but it is usually about your own life.
Tolstoy wrote about this in The Cossacks. Olenin, a Moscow nobleman, goes to the Caucasus to start over. In a Cossack village he watches people marry, fight and die without his doubts. In chapter XXVI:
"the sight of them made him feel ashamed and sorry for himself"
— Leo Tolstoy, The Cossacks, chapter XXVI, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude
He sees them as strong, free and beautiful. What he feels is not admiration but shame.
What the envy points at
Olenin imagines a new life: a hut, cattle, a Cossack wife. He asks himself why he doesn't do it. He never does. The envy was never a plan. It pointed at the life he already had, the one he was ashamed of.
He moved to start over and brought himself along. There is a separate page about moving without change.
What the novel leaves
Tolstoy doesn't recommend a simpler life. He shows how envy works. That leaves a question: what in my own life makes me ashamed when I look at people who live more simply?
Epimelea is an app built around the existential school. The conversation carries over from one meeting to the next. The archive is encrypted on the device and belongs to the person who wrote it.
About the app: an AI therapist for long-term therapy
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