SQUEEZING THE LEMON

The carnival was in town again. As always, there were rides and games and food, but this year there was a special added attraction — a strongman.

Hundreds of people were at his show. He bent steel with his bare hands. He smashed bricks with his forearm. He arm-wrestled all comers. But for the grand finale, he simply squeezed a lemon.

All the juice from the lemon dripped onto the stage.

Then he made a brazen offer. “I’ll give $10,000.00 to anyone who can squeeze just one more drop from this lemon. Who’ll be first?”

Two high school football players with bulging biceps jumped up on stage. They squeezed and squeezed and squeezed . . . but not even a trace of a drop.

Several other huge men tried it . . . nothing.

Then the strongman said, “Time for one more. Who will it be?”

A small, middle-aged woman raised her hand and asked if she could try.

“Sure you can, ma’am. Come on down.” As he welcomed her onto the stage, there were snickers from the crowd.

The woman grabbed the lemon and held it up in front of her. More snickers.

With total focus and determination she squeezed and squeezed and squeezed . . . and one little drop fell onto the stage. The audience gasped and then broke into wild applause.

Then the huge strongman put his arm around the little woman and said, “Ma’am, I’ve done hundreds of shows just like this one, and thousands of people have tried for the money, but you’re the only one ever to win it. How in the world did you do it?”

“Well,” the woman said, “when you have a husband who’s sick in bed and can’t work and you have eight mouths to feed and you have to pinch every penny; squeezing a lemon for $10,000 ain’t too hard.”