How to Eat a Grapefruit

When I was just getting over being clumsy with a spoon and learning that the tablecloth wasn't a reserve napkin, we were having grapefruit for breakfast one day and mom decided I was old enough to learn to handle one by myself.

She patiently showed me that the sections that are thicker are easier to dig out, so always plan to end up on a thick one so you don't get stuck with a thin one.

Always tip it away from you so that if juice squirts out when you slide your spoon into a section you don't get your eye sprayed.

Hold it over your bowl so the drips will land in there, because that is where you want them for now anyway.

And keep scraping the section you are on until you get all you can out before moving on to the next section.

Many meals at many tables have come and gone since then, but I marvel at the wide applicability of the insights mom gave me back then.

She was ahead of Steven Covey's "begin with the end in mind".
She was ahead of the guru who said "you have to take care of yourself before you can really do much good for another".
She was ahead of my college grounds department boss lecturing the new guys on "use your head and don't waste effort on something that won't do you nor anybody else any good".
She was ahead of ADD Crusher coach Allan Brown: when you are interrupted or not sure what to do next, finish what you were working on.

Thanks mom. I still love grapefruit. But even better, I know some great tips on how to navigate more than the breakfast table.