Linda Laino
The Polite Pass: An Anatomy Of A Word
This essay was originally published in Elephant Journal in 2015 Pase or Pasele are words I hear many times during my day here in Mexico. In Spanish, it literally means “pass” or “pass yourself, but translates to Go on or You first. Please. I insist. It is often accompanied by an open handed gesture and a smile. Sometimes, there is even a “kindness stand-off” with two people gently insisting they be the one to step aside. One of the reasons for this gesture in the small town