When winter really hits the Pacific Northwest, there is no help for it, but to stay home, stay cozy, and watch it snow. You know what that means in my little universe? Yes, that’s right: Science Fiction Fest!!!

I usually won’t watch a movie unless it involves a spaceship. (Okay, sometimes an elf will do, but that’s just because of Tolkien.) So, today, I started with the latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery. In it I discovered the most enlightening conversation. It comes from Saru, who comes from a new and highly empathic species.

“I would say my life began when I was accorded refugee status by Starfleet. While being processed at Star Base 7, I saw for the first time lifeforms from across the universe, some with less than I had. Yet, with a dream of something better. I listened. Every story I heard created a space inside me to feel more, to love more. I joined Starfleet to help those in need the way I was helped.”

I have, in the past, worked alongside a number of people who came here as refugees. Some had terrible stories that they told to me as I packed boxes or answered phones beside them. I learned so much from them: how to survive, how to adapt to unusual circumstances, but mostly about the amazing capacity we all have for love, for empathy and for compassion. They were the ones who were the most caring, even after suffering some terrible hardships.

Every story I heard created a space inside me to feel more, to love more. That’s why we need the diversity that has been created by our immigrant past and should still inform our present. It increases our ability to be compassionate and to begin to really understand each other. At least, that’s been my experience.