Maya Siskin-Lavine

Bay Area // St. Paul

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

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.

[Erin Albin Hill @ErinAlbinHill]

I'm so tired of hearing people say "we've survived 4 years of Trump, we can survive 4 more." There are A LOT of people who literally didn't survive because of his policies, decisions, and rhetoric. That statement is a statement of a ton of privilege.

[Ayman @AymanM]

Just a reminder, the largest example of voter fraud currently taking place in the US is being led by the CA GOP which is placing fake ballot drop-off boxes to confuse voters into mistakingly misplacing their ballots... and yet the DOJ and Bill Barr haven’t yet taken any action

[AntiDisplacementCoup @AsterZephyrIsis]

so eating and being served at a restaurant in a tent is okay, but living in one because you have nowhere else to go is not. taking up public space is okay, but only as a consumer.

[Maya Siskin-Lavine @mayasl_]

@_emallison Proud of you ❤️

[Ola Ξlixir @thegreatola]

get your S.H.I.T together. (skincare, happiness & health, inner peace, and your time)

[eat soup @jasminericegirl]

happy national gf day to all the drunk women i've met in bathrooms who unconditionally loved and supported me

[breezy @bneura_]

Racism isn’t a touchy topic if you’re not a fucking racist

[Maya Siskin-Lavine @mayasl_]

Remember when we hugged our friends goodbye? That was fun

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

Suspend evictions, foreclosures, and utility shut-offs nationwide.

[MRC @mayahrc]

apple should suspend ALL screen time notifications until the worst of the COVID19 pandemic has passed.

[Barack Obama @BarackObama]

With summer winding down, here’s a sampling of what Michelle and I have been listening to — some new, some old, some fast, some slow. Hope you enjoy.

[Maya Siskin-Lavine @mayasl_]

My parents still get DVDs from Netflix

[Maya Siskin-Lavine @mayasl_]

If you’re not watching the debate rn, you really should be

[Maya Siskin-Lavine @mayasl_]

@racheltwinone Good question