The mad war-planet, and other poems

You can see a really good fictional example of this regenerative property in the movie Enemy Mine, directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring Dennis Quaid and Lou Gossett, Jr. ItБЂ™s about two space travelers from warring planets who get stranded on some asteroid together, just the two of them. Not only canБЂ™t they speak the otherБЂ™s language, but theyБЂ™re of different species and each has a mandate to kill the other. But because of communicationБЂ™s awesome ability to build bridges across distances and difficulties, theyБЂ™re eventually able to talk to each other and build a good working relationship. The movie may be science fiction, but the principle it illustrates is pure science. I arrived in this country as a little girl of four speaking no English. I was immediately put in a nursery school with other kids from other countries. Almost none of us spoke each otherБЂ™s language. Yet within weeks, even days, we were all bridging every imaginable gap of background and culture and playing together like kids whoБЂ™d all been born on the same block ...»