The Grapefruit Syndrome

I was cleaning out a drawer yesterday and found something that hung on our wall about a hundred years ago.  It's still relevant.  I can't take credit for it.  It was in a magazine written by Lola B. Walters.

My husband and I had been married about two years-just long enough for me to realize that he was a normal man rather than a knight on a white charger--when I read a magazine article recommending that married couples schedule regular talks to discuss, truthfully and candidly, the habits or mannerisms they find annoying  in each other.  The theory was that if the partners knew of such annoyances, they could correct them before resentful feelings developed.
It made sense to me.  I talked with my husband about the idea.  After some hesitation, he agreed to give it a try.
As I recall, we were to name five things we found annoying, and I started off.  After more than fifty years, I remember only my first complaint:  grapefruit.  I told him that I didn't like the way he ate grapefruit.  He peeled it and ate it like an orange!  Nobody else I knew ate grapefruit like that.  Could a girl be expected to spend a lifetime, and even eternity, watching her husband eat grapefruit like an orange?  Although I have forgotten them, I'm sure the rest of my complaints were similar.
After I finished, it was his turn to tell the things he disliked about me.  Though it has been more than half a century, I still carry a mental image of my husband's handsome young face as he gathered  his brows together in thoughtful, puzzled frown and then looked at me with his large blue-gray eyes and said,  "Well, to tell the truth, I can't think of anything I don't like about you, Honey."
Gasp.
I quickly turned my back, because I didn't know how to explain the tears that  had filled my eyes and were running down my face.  I had found fault with him over such trivial things as the way he ate grapefruit, while he hadn't even noticed any of my peculiar and no doubt annoying ways.
I wish I could say that this experience completely cured me of fault finding. It didn't.  But it did make me aware early in my marriage that husbands and wives need to keep in perspective, and usually ignore, the small differences in their habits and personalities.
Whenever I hear of married couples being incompatible, I always wonder if they are suffering from what I now call the Grapefruit Syndrome.

You could say this was written specifically for me.  I think we'd probably been married 2 years when Keith showed it to me.  It taught me a good lesson, but like the author, I'm still learning it.  I have been saying forever, the only thing I gave up in marrying Keith is Miracle Whip.  All the other sacrifices have been his.  While that's not completely accurate either, my husband puts up with all the quirky, annoying things about me.  After nearly 18 years,  I actually believe that he doesn't even see many of them.  It's kind of like believing him when he says he doesn't notice other women.  It's a happy and secure place to be.