Why do I pretend I didn't want it?
The job went to someone else. The person stopped answering. Within a day you hear yourself say it was never that interesting anyway. It sounds calm. It may even feel true.
The odd part is who the sentence is for.
The fox and the grapes
The fable is short. A hungry fox sees grapes on a high trellis and jumps for them until he gives up. Then he walks off:
"I thought those Grapes were ripe, but I see now they are quite sour."
— Aesop, "The Fox and the Grapes", tr. V. S. Vernon Jones
No one is listening
Aesop gives the fox no audience. There is no other animal to impress and no one who saw him jump. He still walks off with dignity and says his line aloud.
So the dignity is for himself. The one who has to believe the grapes were sour is the one who wanted them.
What goes with the wish
The sentence works. If there was nothing worth getting, there was no failure. The price is the wish itself. A fox who never wanted grapes was never hungry. He has no reason to look for a lower trellis.
How wishing comes before any decision is the subject of Yalom on wish and will.
What the fable leaves
Aesop does not mock the fox. He only lets him speak. And he leaves a question: which wish did I cancel so I would not have to admit I couldn't reach it?
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
This page is about a school of psychotherapy. It is not medical advice and not emergency help. If you are in danger right now, contact your local emergency number, or find a helpline in your country at findahelpline.com.