claimed. The butcher assured her that the reddest meat turns white in the grinding process, but his young customer wouldn't bite. She remained unconvinced.

The butcher didn't flinch. He held up some red meat for her examination and asked her if it met with her require

I want to tell you a little story. Not about anything dramatic. On the contrary, it's very ordinary.

So ordinary, in fact, that the many onlookers who must have been standing around didn't bat an eyelid when they overheard this brief conversation in a busy butcher shop. Hardly surprising that it made no impression on them because, seemingly, there was nothing to be impressed by.

Except for one highly perceptive soul whose finely tuned spiritual antennae were able to pick up subtle nuances far above the heads of the rest of us. He is a man who often speaks in public, and he was excited by what he had overheard in the butcher shop that day that he just couldn't wait for the first opportunity to share the story with a public audience.

And thanks to his fortuitous presence in the shop just at that moment, I'm able to share it with you as well.

A young woman came into the shop and asked for freshly ground beef. The butcher told her that he had just ground some beef and held up a bag for her inspection.

She examined the bag, but rejected it. It was too white, she claimed. The butcher assured her that the reddest meat turns white in the grinding process, but his young customer wouldn't bite. She remained unconvinced.

The butcher didn't flinch. He held up some red meat for her examination and asked her if it met with her requirem

. Hardly surprising that it made no impression on them because, seemingly, there was nothing to be impressed by.

Except for one highly perceptive soul whose finely tuned spiritual antennae were able to pick up subtle nuances far above the heads of the rest of us. He is a man who often speaks in public, and he was excited by what he had overheard in the butcher shop that day that he just couldn't wait for the first opportunity to share the story with a public audience.

And thanks to his fortuitous presence in the shop just at that moment, I'm able to share it with you as well.

A young woman came into the shop and asked for freshly ground beef. The butcher told her that he had just ground some beef and held up a bag for her inspection.

She examined the bag, but rejected it. It was too white, she claimed. The butcher assured her that the reddest meat turns white in the grinding process, but his young customer wouldn't bite. She remained unconvinced.

The butcher didn't flinch. He held up some red meat for her examination and asked her if it met with her require

a man who often speaks in public, and he was excited by what he had overheard in the butcher shop that day that he just couldn't wait for the first opportunity to share the story with a public audience.

And thanks to his fortuitous presence in the shop just at that moment, I'm able to share it with you as well.

A young woman came into the shop and asked for freshly ground beef. The butcher told her that he had just ground some beef and held up a bag for her inspection.

She examined the bag, but rejected it. It was too white, she claimed. The butcher assured her that the reddest meat turns white in the grinding process, but his young customer wouldn't bite. She remained unconvinced.

The butcher didn't flinch. He held up some red meat for her examination and asked her if it met with her require

nt, I'm able to share it with you as well.

A young woman came into the shop and asked for freshly ground beef. The butcher told her that he had just ground some beef and held up a bag for her inspection.

She examined the bag, but rejected it. It was too white, she claimed. The butcher assured her that the reddest meat turns white in the grinding process, but his young customer wouldn't bite. She remained unconvinced.

The butcher didn't flinch. He held up some red meat for her examination and asked her if it met with her require

claimed. The butcher assured her that the reddest meat turns white in the grinding process, but his young customer wouldn't bite. She remained unconvinced.

The butcher didn't flinch. He held up some red meat for her examination and asked her if it met with her requirements. She confirmed that it was in order, and the butcher put it through the grinder. He politely handed the woman the resulting product without saying a word. It was just as white as the already ground beef he had originally offered her.

As I said, a most unremarkable incident. At this point, if the audience reacted at all, it was only to express their great amazement that the lecturer had seen fit to mention such a trivial incident at all. What was he trying to prove?

But it only took a couple of seconds for the speaker's palpable sense of excitement to infect everybody in the room.

"Look," he said, "what would you have done had you been in this butcher's place. "What would you have said as you handed over the meat and handed the customer's money?"

That answer, of course is obvious. What would any "normal" person have said, if not for something like: "Isn't this just what I told you? When you grind the meat, it turns white."

"And could you have restrained yourself?" asked the lecturer rhetorically. "I could never have restrained myself."

But the but