The other side

I guess you can tell by now that I love science fiction. There are three stories that stand out as exceptional to me.

The first one is Enemy Mine.

You know its funny we all go through life living with people who are different than ourselves. I've always been what I call color blind. The first friend I ever remember having was Hispanic. Her family immigrated from Mexico and her Mother only spoke Spanish. They made tortillas on a griddle in the back yard. Oh my gosh, it always smelled so good when they were cooking and my friend Ernestina would always make sure I had one hot from the griddle.We fought battles for and with each other but through it all if push came to shove we stood together.  Its been a friendship that has spanned fifty years. The thing is I never realized she was different. We were both girls, we both went to the same classroom every day. We liked the same things. We both thought boys were stupid. It was only when I was older that I was faced with prejudice that I realized that we were different.

I went back to my birthplace a couple of years ago and we drove by my old house. It brought back so many great memories of a time gone by. Life was simple then. We had rules, no playing in the street. Come in when it gets dark, even if you are in the middle of a game of hide and seek. When your Dad whistles you come. Sometimes he had to whistle twice.

Enemy Mine reminds me of my friendship with Ernestina not because we were enemies that became a part of one another but because we were different. In fact it reminds me of a lot of friendships I've had over the years.

The second would have to be The Abyss.

The Abyss was so believable to me. I love to think that there are beautiful beings living under our ocean. Ones that can manipulate water into any shape they wish. And who want to do us no harm but only want to live in peace. That's where I want to live. Sadly the world we live in now is so filled with unrest and distrust of everyone and everything that if a friendly alien species was to try to contact us they'd get a very unwelcome reception.

Of course they could be like the aliens in Independence Day. But even then could we all come together to fight a common enemy or would we all be fighting against each other and destroy ourselves in the process? It looks like we're doing a pretty good job of that right now.

The last one is my absolute favorite story about aliens. Avatar.

It was so incredibly beautiful. But it all came down to a bully and a victim.

I have been the victim of bullies. And all bullies are cowards. When confronted, they run like the cowards they are. They are afraid to stand up for themselves. They prey on the weak because it makes them feel strong. I face bullies head on. But I didn't in the past. I let a bully take away the only baby I was ever pregnant with. I let bullies ruin the second half of my senior year in high school. And I let a bully take away sixteen years of my life.

I was married to a bully for sixteen years. I didn't realize it at the time but he was. I know the difference now. I know what it feels like to be loved beyond measure. To be cherished like the most perfect diamond. To be protected like a fragile flower. And to have someone to stand by me on the most difficult of journeys. When I had to lay my precious Bam Bam to rest, or when my Dad was in the hospital living his last days. He has been by my side standing with me. I never knew what I was missing. A partner that actually cares enough to stand beside me even when I was at my very worst.

Yes I was a bully. I'm guilty. I'm ashamed.

I had lived with a bully for so long that I became a bully myself. I actually took on his personality traits. It took a counselor, a therapist, a near breakdown and an antidepressant to get myself back to the person I had always been. A lover of life, people animals and nature. I was so afraid that someone was going to hurt me that I pushed everyone away first, and in so doing, became the worst part of myself. I've came to terms with who I was for that moment in time and apologized to the one person who stood by me know matter how bad I got. I love you Lance. Thank you for being the tether I needed when I was living in an alien world.