Carl Sagan
I don’t think I really have to say much about why Carl Sagan is one of my favorite people. Sagan made it his mission to spread scientific knowledge across the world, an outspoken humanist who wanted to make the world a better place through knowledge.
To me anyone whose main life goal was to teach, to spread knowledge (theists note by teach I do not mean force nonsense upon) as a means of improving the world is a great man. If you have never seen it go and watch Sagan’s series “Cosmos”, you won’t regret it.
“When my husband died, because he was so famous & known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me — it still sometimes happens — & ask me if Carl changed at the end & converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage & never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don’t ever expect to be reunited with Carl. But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief & precious life is. We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting. Every single moment that we were alive & we were together was miraculous — not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural. We knew we were beneficiaries of chance… That pure chance could be so generous & so kind… That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space & the immensity of time… That we could be together for twenty years. That is something which sustains me & it’s much more meaningful…
The way he treated me & the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other & our family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday. I don’t think I’ll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful.“
– Ann Druyan, talking about her husband, Carl Sagan
source: brijux.com
