When Life Hands You Lemons...Getting Serious

So, my attempt at a light-hearted contest for while I was out of town pretty much fell flat. It generated but one response in the comments section of the blog--a response which, I think, was an attempt to caricature what the response's author took to be my views on what we should do when confronted with an undesired and (at least at first blush) unpleasant aspect of reality.

But I also got a phone-in response from my friend and co-author John. While not the kind of playful or silly response I was originally envisioning, it deserves to be posted here. And of the two entries, it is the clear winner. So, here, then, is the winning response to my failed contest:

When life hands you lemons, do what the stellar opera soprano Rosa Ponselle--before whom the great conductor Arturo Toscanini once went down on his knees--did with lemons. She sucked on them before she performed as a tonic for her vocal cords. In other words, when life hands you lemons, find in those lemons that which is of God, and drink deeply of that.

Dare I invite other, more serious reflections of this sort? For my own reflection on what to do when life hands you "lemons," you can check out this post.