One More Step

In the summer of 1986 I had the pleasure of hosting a visitor from Chile. A dear pastor. His name was Luis Garcia. We traveled from one speaking engagement to another. Sometimes two in a day - usually a lunch and a dinner meeting. Luis would almost never fail to charm and inspire his audiences. We met with a group of five pastors at their regular monthly lunch meeting. The pastor who invited us was there. He failed to introduce Luis or to announce why he was there. In frustration (let the reader understand that I mean mild anger) I imposed myself on their incessant chattering to introduce Luis and explain that he was in our presbytery to help us better understand the reality of the Presbyterian Church in Chile, SA. They immediately continued their mindless and trivial exchange of pointless conservation. Luis read the situation before I did and patted me on the hand as to say "Its not worth the effort, let it go."

As we began to travel away from that meeting, Luis said quietly something like "altra passa (maybe "passo") - the phrase was not intended for me. It was a kind of sigh of resignation. It apparently was idiomatic to his home region of South America. While it literally meant, "another step" in its parlance or implied meaning, it meant something like "life goes on," "this too will pass" or "I'm glad that over."

I find myself often vocalizing this Spanish (or Spanglish) phrase - just like Luis did.It reminds me of the passing of time and meaningful punctuation of various events. Luis is in heaven now. I wonder what insights he now enjoys concerning all those passing circumstances. I envy such awareness.