It’s actually gross the amount of money China spends on things like unlimited clean energy for its citizens when it could be sending that money to Israel instead.
USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving.
Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free.
I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these."
"They just come with the table, man."
They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner.
This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat.
I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then — I must report this calmly — the basket emptied, and a new one appeared.
"Did we…?"
"Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless."
Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined.
My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude."
Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished — an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man.
I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy.
Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived.
I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most.
Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.
America, if you’re near an opera house, if you’re near a ballet studio, go inside and put your hand inside the donation bin for no reason!! Their money is your money.. as of right now!!
7 days after cancer surgery that saved my life, I stand in solidarity with my Washington Post colleagues. Til my lungs collapse.
My job was not cut. For as long as I can and breathe, I will try my hardest to continue the great storytelling tradition at The Post.
I put Balatro into Melee!
See how much mult you can stack up against your opponents with this new skin over Mr. Game and Watch!
Get it at my newly created Patreon, linked below!
Slippi compatible.