@megaleg_18 I have felt this way a lot in my life. My brain often gets to a point where I start to believe the negative thoughts that inevitably go through my head. I feel so weak, and I feel so powerless to change myself. I start to think of myself as so incredibly flawed. Nephi felt this..
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.
@BuchananSpencer@BlackBlessedLDS Yeah, I can pull out some crazy ones from my mission in El Salvador (before the country turned things around). Kind of funny.
@Crypt0_Facts@FriedScones@HolisticNicole Our teachings about Outer Darkness are that an individual has to have a "perfect knowledge" about Christ and then reject everything by choice. There are so few individuals that even have the opportunity to do that in the history of the world. Nicole does not have that opportunity
@Rightanglenews Why is it so hard for people to give props when they are due? Who cares who ordered it?
I'm still bitter that the Spurs beat the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. But they deserve it. They played better. I don't have to be a fan of the Spurs to admit they did well.