Meditation on a Grapefruit
I was taught to eat a grapefruit, cutting it in half and then using a serrated knife to cut the flesh from the skins of each triangular section. My mother would sprinkle it with a packet of Sweet & Low; her theory being that everything’s a little better when made more sweet. I watched the crystal powder dissolve into the pale pink fruit and disappear. When all the sections were scooped out and sucked on, I learned how to fold the dome in half and squeeze out the juice into the bowl. I would tip the bowl to slurp down the liquid; a refreshing end to the experience, quenching thirst and serving remnants of artificial sweetness. Now that I am grown and do things my own way, I have a spoon with teeth on the edges, specially designed as a multi-tasking grapefruit-eating tool. I don’t add sweetener, I prefer the bitterness that comes naturally.
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