Millions Of People Watched A Lemon Roll Down A Hill And It's Weirdly The Purest Thing

"Today I watched a lemon roll down a hill with thousands of other people from around the world."

Michael Sakasegawa had just finished his morning run on Wednesday when he spotted something peculiar: It was a lemon rolling down a hill.

Today as I was walking home after my run I saw a large lemon rolling down the hill. It kept rolling for about a quarter mile. And now you can see it, too. https://t.co/dQoHi4RrXS

Sakasegawa, who's 39 and lives in San Diego, said he didn't realize what the object was until he got closer.

"I had to run to catch up with it," he told BuzzFeed News. "I had initially thought it was a tennis ball or something."

Amused by the traveling citrus, he pulled out his phone and started filming.

"As a photographer, a lot of what I take pictures of, and just sort of one of the things I try and do, is elevate the ordinary and mundane and find things that are beautiful and entertaining," he said.

The result? A 1-minute, 51-second video of a lemon rolling down a hill, which has been viewed nearly 4 million times.

I just spent 1.51 of my life watching a lemon roll down a hill, what is wrong with me https://t.co/IhcAy509Dm

Though the video runs just under two minutes, Sakasegawa said the lemon rolled for about three or four minutes total.

Somehow, Sakasegawa's simple video went ridiculously viral.

@sakeriver @DOCisChief Today I watched a lemon roll down a hill with thousands of other people from around the world. Yes.

2008: Busy, trying to balance work and home life. 2018: Busy watching a video of a lemon rolling down the street.

And for just a brief, beautiful moment, everyone on Twitter came together to root for the lemon.

@sakeriver i watched this all the way through and i don’t know why i was really invested it overcame so many hurdles

this lemon had more motivation than I do. this lemon had places to GO. this lemon had places to be. this lemon wasn't letting any fuck shit in it's easy. this lemon wasn't stopping for anyone or anything. this lemon is my idol and my role model. I love this lemon. https://t.co/aGWgtxDCkH

no i am not going to sit here and watch a lemon roll down a wow where did the time go https://t.co/MAR030qZP6

Thanks to its newfound fame, Sakasegawa took the lemon home with him. It is, as experts would dub it, an "absolute unit."

The fruit weighed 262 grams — more than half a pound.

"It was pretty hefty," said Sakasegawa.

Fans of the hefty lemon have given Sakasegawa all sorts of suggestions of what to do with it, he said.

"A bunch of people think I should make lemonade with it or eat it or something," he said. "A few other people have said, 'You need to plant it.'"

For now, he's got no major plans for the lemon.

"I thought at least I'd hang onto it long enough to show my kids," he said.

Sakasegawa said he's "really surprised" the video became such a big deal.

"I don't know that there's really any rhyme or reason for why something gets big on the internet," he said.

"Some people have mentioned they find it soothing or relaxing," he said. "Some people find it inspiring — they're rooting for the lemon to go as far as it can."

At the end of the day, perhaps there's no use trying to explain the wonders of the hefty rolling lemon and how it brought people together.

"You come right down to it, it's just a lemon rolling down a hill," he said.

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