Okay I admit it. I’m a sucker for guilt. Someone tries to sell me something, and I find it hard to resist when it’s a friend. Another caveat is if it’s someone who’s talked to me at a food stand, and they give me a free sample. I sometimes feel sorry for them, and buy the product because of guilt.
I guess I would say at this point in my life my guilt shopping is 50-50. If I don’t really want something, nothing will change my mind. Nevertheless, at least 50% of the time I feel compelled to buy from a person for one reason or another. Usually it’s guilt.
When there are bigger problems looming in the world, I ask myself, why should I feel guilty?
Good question. I have a degree of empathy, and a generous bone or two in my body.
Today I tried something new from the local farmers market.
I felt sorry for the Spanish lady who had to listen to me ask about about why there was no mild salsa left.

I wanted to buy tomato salsa, the mild kind, because some salsas can be upsetting and surprisingly hot when the label says medium.
She was all out of the kind I wanted. I walked away in dismay. But I turned around and came back.

Perhaps the people around here don’t like hot spicy things. But I do!
I decided to buy her medium-strong green tomatillo salsa. I found it rather runny as I poured it over my tortilla chips.

I never had tomatillo salsa before. It is green.
I brought it home and I put it on some nachos covered with cheese. I was in heaven. My taste buds were dancing. So somehow, my guilt from talking to her and denying myself a purchase, and then changing my mind to buy the green tomatillo salsa was a success. Yummy yum!

Musically yours,

Amy Zents