The Way He Eats His Grapefruit–A Marriage Tale

So there we were… the new couple… the newlyweds.  Asked to give a talk in church. 

Oh man!  I don’t do talks.  Not good ones, anyway. 

Luckily, my topic was US!  They asked me to introduce us as a couple and just talk about our relationship. 

In preparation for my talk, I remember running across a story.  A story about grapefruits.  And it seems that when you are asked to give a talk or a lesson, you always find that you learn far more for yourself than you can ever teach to someone else. 

This grapefruit story was exactly what I needed.  And have since needed several times since. 

We all know the ‘correct’ way to eat a grapefruit, right?  Cut in half with a little bit of sugar on top… eaten with a spoon.  Isn’t that how we all eat them? 

You see in this story that I found, the husband ate his grapefruit all wrong.  He peeled it… like an orange.  Then he ate it section by section… like an orange.  I mean, WHO DOES THAT? 

The wife thought this was ridiculous and ridiculed her husband every time he ate a grapefruit telling him he ate it wrong.  She would ask, “Why do you eat your grapefruit like that?  You’re doing it wrong!” 

He would shrug his shoulders and say, “It’s just a grapefruit, honey.”

When I found this story in preparation for my talk, I realized that I was being THAT wife.  The one that ridiculed and belittled every move that my poor husband made.  He had no idea what he was in for when he married me.  And I can say the same for myself… I had no clue! 

Who was this man that brushed his teeth like that?  And what happened to the guy I was dating?  The one that I heard fart a total of THREE times in just over a year… on ACCIDENT!!  All of the sudden I was hearing 3 every hour!  Sometimes not just hearing if you know what I mean.  WHOOWEE!  ;)  The honeymoon ends, he’s got the girl and WHAM!  He let’s loose!  UGH!  (Still working on that one…)

And dinner?  Every night?  I’m supposed to know how to cook, too?  If you’re hungry, YOU make dinner! 

Suddenly, I realized what I was doing to this poor man.  The man that I loved!  I was embarrassed about it.  But I gave my talk, story included and got rave reviews afterwards.  Now I had to try and live up to what I had preached.

Sometimes I do well, and most of the time I don’t.  Just bein’ real.  And Anthony always reminds me, all these years later, “It’s just a grapefruit, Brooke.”  Any time I start picking at his faults (mostly quirks) he says it.  It helps me to realize when I’m picking on my kids also.  So what if they like their grapefruit different than I do.  It’s not wrong, just different. 

{And yet, totally wrong… cut in half WITHOUT sugar!?  BLECH!}

But I realize that I need to look past the way they eat their grapefruits.  Realize that if everyone ate theirs the same way I do the world would be a very boring place.  I didn’t marry me, I married Anthony. 

So today I say I’m sorry.  To my husband, to my kids, to anyone else whose grapefruit eating ways have been demeaned by me. 

I can truly say that I am glad you eat your grapefruits the way you do.  Peeled, cut, chopped, pureed (weird), grilled, in a cup from Costco, with sugar, without sugar, or otherwise. 

Happy GRAPEFRUITING!!