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.
@jamie_weydert This hits on almost every point. We literally had a burned down abandoned house that we weren’t supposed to visit. It was visited frequently.
@JeffRatcliffe my league has figured out how to take the random factor out of fantasy football defenses and kickers…we don’t use them! Offense only! #bestleague#dmff
@FreedomRunner5@IndianaFever@WNBA I just can’t understand why @airswoopes22 wants to die on that hill. Her original take (Covid aided record break) was misinformed and corrected (ish) at the time. Doubled down with the age and shots taken misinformation, but could have just let it go. Why continue the hate??