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.
Rich kids being able to do art for a living may be a reflection of their privilege but it seems to me like a reflection of the fact that a human that doesn't have to worry about money will often choose art. everyone is an artist until rent is due. i wish we all had that right
memo ochoa has been the one player that’s been consistent throughout my life like that’s my messi my ronaldo my goat. idc about recent stats or anything he’s a father figure to me yall wouldn’t get it
The neurodivergent ick when you realize mid-convo that correcting them is pointless because they'd need self-awareness and emotional intelligence to even process that they're wrong.
i am not a new yorker bc i was born there, i am a new yorker bc a rat once ran over my sandal-clad foot while i was walking thru the 14th street underpass to get on the f to get to my shift as a hostess at a seafood brunch place in carroll gardens and when i got there i got fired