Lime Squeezers - Part I of "Journey of Tao" Trilogy

 

This passage was originally published in Heaven On Earth in July 2013 and republished as Part I of "Journey of Tao" trilogy in Journeys of Other Kinds in July 2026.

"If someone tells you that you are a "squeezer of limes" in Hindi, don't be flattered. The idiom means you are a self-invited or an idler. - Jag Bhalla, author of National Geographic's I'm Not Hanging Noodles On Your Ears


When I saw the above statement in an Indian travel guide book, I could not understand why lime squeezers were considered idlers in India. I searched the term "lime juice" online and got an answer. According to Wikipedia, India is the top producer of limes in the world. Limes are so abundant in India that squeezing limes would be just a way of killing time producing a worthless commodity.

Sometimes we have down times not by choice. I was involved in a near fatal bicycle accident a few months ago. I have been recovering at home because of my mobility issues. I am a lime squeezer by definition. Because I believe everything happens for a reason, I start looking for examples of lime squeezers in history and try to account for the necessity of lime squeezers.

Nelson Mandela spent 27 years of his life in prison for something that he believed in and for being vocal about. He must have done a lot of the equivalent of lime squeezing during all those years behind bars for punishment. Another lime squeezer that comes to my mind is Mahatma Gandhi. I have seen many old photos of him reclining. They both accomplished what they set out to do after enduring a prolonged period of passivity. I would never know for sure if they aimed to become spiritual leaders and fathers of their nations; however, they certainly epitomized the defiant spirit that is everlasting in their people's conscience.

Many of the important scientific discoveries and inventions also happened during some idle moments. If Isaac Newton did not sit idly under an apple tree, the legend about the discovery of gravity would not exist. Penicillin would not be invented if Alexander Fleming did not go away on holidays and mold had a chance to develop on the bacterial cultures. The list of such examples is long. 


Modern day people seem to have an insatiable appetite to fill all their waking moments with activities such as working, commuting, listening to news or music, playing video games, chatting, texting and surfing the net. I think we should set aside some time every day to be lime squeezers. We might not be productive in the short term or instantly gratified; nevertheless, the world could be a better place as a result of this collective non-action.

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