Un-pride

I rarely use the word pride. It is not something that I think is useful in most situations I find myself in. I don’t take pride in my work, rather I am engaged. I am not proud of my friends, just happy to have them around me. I am not proud of “my” country, but I am thankful for the luxuries afforded to me, and irritated or offended by what I trade for them.

Sometimes when people ask me why I am not more excited about something, specifically in the context of questioning why I didn’t share a personal achievement with them, my first linguistic reaction to tell them, “It isn’t something I am proud of.”

I mean that literally, and by which I imply that they have an unusually high investment of pride in whatever the subject is. However, that sentence is taken the same way many folks take “I don’t like it”. I don’t think context helps with this much. If I don’t like ice cream, but I do not dislike it either, it is actually more useful to say that I do not dislike it, and let the awkwardness of the phrase imply the meaning.

Pride, however, is harder to do that with, since it doesn’t have a clear juxtaposition. For instance, I don’t think saying “I am not shamed by that” or “I am not humble about that” transmits any clear meaning. Though it can be fun to try those patterns out.

So, what is the actually negating opposite of pride? Or, what is the easiest way to imply that pride is not something that should be considered, without accidentally implying that you are ashamed?