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.
"Before you know my name, before you know the content of my character, before you know my moral compass, I'm already considered a threat to you, to so many Americans." @GiannoCaldwell weighs in on the emotion behind the Minneapolis protests #nine2noon
In an instant, the world changed forever. Never had we been more viciously attacked. Never had we been more united. Never had we been more strong. It bears remembering now and forever. #NeverForget
NYPD Det. Luis Alvarez is a hero dying of 9/11 cancer. He has fought hard for 9/11 Healthcare legislation & Victims Compensation Fund. Now he is in hospice preparing to die. It is in honor of brave heroes like Det. Alvarez that Congress must pass VCF bill. Keep punching Luis!!