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.
@SaffronOlive Redwall! Medieval setting with woodland critters (rabbits/hares, mice, otters, hedgehogs, badgers, etc) living in an abbey, and forests etc.
My binder was stolen at MagicCon Vegas. It contained about 15,000$ worth of cards, many important to me, artist proofs or alters alike. PLEASE be on the lookout and share this post around seeing it happened IMMEDIATELY before the convention ended (5:40 pm, a few photos below)
I’ve owned a card shop for three years and I’ve never made a $20,000 mistake. Until now.
I accidentally bought 300 displays of the new Ultra Pro Pokemon Energy sleeves.
I meant to buy 30 units each. Not 30 displays.
Brutal. If anyone wants to buy cases of these sleeves at a 25% below wholesale discount let me know. Willing to take a $5000 loss to get these moved.
Keegan Michael Key said it's possible he pulls out a @coachjfranklin impression down the line. "I am open to doing the impression if I'm anywhere near Virginia."
But he's excited about PSU.
"I am looking forward to Matt Campbell, what he did at Iowa State was remarkable."