Tears in the Rain

 Movie Spoilers for 'Blade Runner', if you haven't seen this movie. Stop, go watch it now! :)

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One of my favorite movies of all time "Blade Runner" has an incredibly deep scene where in the final moment, we see the pain and humanity and anguish in someone (a replicant played by Rutger Hauer) who has been deemed less than human, demonized, diminished, and reduced to a thing. when in all reality they are living brighter and more human than human.  IMO, one of Rutger Hauer and Harrison Fords best scenes ever! 

 

I think about that scene often, what it means to be human, to be treated as "less than Human", to know and be a conscious observer of the universe and a flicker of flame in a moment in time, to then be lost in the currents of time and to know your time is up. 

I am deeply moved every-time I watch and observe this moment. Not only for my empathy towards this character in his final moments but also for the loss...and fleetingness of his life experience and how he and others like him have been treated by the rest of humanity. To be treated as an object, a thing. 

Being transgender in today's political climate feels like being a replicant. I will never understand fully how people can treat other people who are different so poorly. And worse it saddens me that people buy in, and follow this terrible ideology.

Ok lets take a bit of a divergence but hang in there I think its all related.  

Douglas Adams suggested that humanity is just a big computer, whose purpose is to through its collective subconsciousness, and through many generations, compute an answer to the ultimate question. He might have been closer to the mark than he realized. 

Brian Cox, whom I adore and respect, said that perhaps Humanity.... our existence... is a manifestation of the consciousness of the universe, we are the intelligence of the universe observing itself.  What if that is true? That is so beautiful I think he is right on the mark. 

I have cried in the rain. I get it. you can't see the tears... the pain is there, the hurt, but its masked by the natural fall of water against your skin. 

When I am treated as if there is something wrong with me....and I have been. sharing a Real Life experience; walking into a gym, feeling pretty good, looking forward to a workout, minding my own business,  presenting in my chosen identity to be loudly miss-gendered by the manager,  is rough. And walking by to hear them continue with "Shheeezzz some people...", regarding my personal presentation of Identity. I've learned to weather the storm to walk right by it, to be strong. I have yet to confront people who have personal issues. next time I think I must.  

My greatest wish is that we all as a people can grow beyond, red team vs blue team, them, vs us, your skin is different so you must be bad, your look makes me uncomfortable so you must be bad or flawed in some way. doesn't make any sense. The saying  "we are stronger together", or "Divided we fall" is true. 

I have never met a person, that if I took the time to talk to them, didn't see the good in them. Life is many things, Unique,  Varied, And I think... precious. We all count. 

So circling back now to "Tears in the rain" it is without a doubt a truth that people...all people are beautiful. To persecute someone is unforgivable, to deny their experiences and their humanity, their identity, is the worse crime of all.  We are all connected, I Truly believe this, We are a manifestation of the universe I think, we all have humanity, we all are unique and we all have value.