Cutting Fruit

The humble labor of middle class life and love

Ali Wong has this comedy bit I think about a lot.

She’s talking about money. And she says, I just want to be rich enough that I don’t have to cut my own fruit. She wants to be able to afford to buy the fruit white people already cut at Whole Foods. Noah Mango, she calls it. 😂

This morning I cut my kids a mango. I have a whole method. I guess I don’t have the same drive to make money as Ali Wong.

I like her and her comedy. But I feel the opposite of Ali Wong. Getting rich seems like a lot of work. Cutting fruit is not that bad, I feel like. It’s kinda relaxing. I spend a lot of time doing it.

My dad used to do the same for me when I was a kid. He would cut whole baggies of fruit for me and my sister. And we’d take them with us to daycare. Sometimes, this is embarrassing to admit now, we would throw them out. Isn’t that heartbreaking? What an act of love and service. Health was always an important value for him.

A while ago, I started following an Asian comedian on Instagram. Anyway, this is the algorithm being kinda racist I guess, but then it kept promoting other Asian comedians into my feed. And they were always joking about being raised by Asian or immigrant parents. So I was learning a little bit about that.

It reminded me a little of my own parents. One thing a lot of these Asian comedians would say is that their parents weren’t real affectionate or demonstrative about their love (which wasn’t my experience, to be clear). But cutting fruit for their kids was one of the ways they showed it.

My parents, they always did this stuff themselves. It’s something I love about them. They were not above rolling up their sleeves and doing some hard work. I always expected to do the same. I didn’t really ever picture for myself the kind of life Ali Wong has. I don’t even live near a Whole Foods. I don’t know if I want that. But I do relate to what she’s saying about not having to worry about spending I guess.

Still, sometimes, I don’t know what I’d do without these kinds of tasks grounding me. I could strive and strive to make 10 or 20 extra thousand a year, but I feel like most of it would just go to paying other people to do these tasks for me. Lawn care. Cleaning. More childcare. Cooking. And we’d have to pay for them with after tax income. As much work as all this is, thinking about that makes me tired.

My husband value shops at the grocery, like my mom and dad did. I load and unload the dishwasher. I cook and prep little meals no one appreciates really. He repairs things and handles taxes and sometimes he deep cleans the floors. Being married with kids is like being involved with the biggest years-long group project in school.

I’m not trying to make some kind of “trad” point. This is just the reality of being middle class and having kids. But I enjoy it. It’s the rhythm of everyday life. Tiny acts of service to my kids and family. It feels like the price of living. It’s grounding. To each his own, but I feel like I’d be lost without all this.