A candle in the dark.
Jeff Kocan Wednesday, December 20, 2006 at 8:41 PM 
I discovered the joys of Carl Sagan later in life than I wish I had, a few years back when I purchased the Cosmos DVD set. By that point I had long since abandoned the more mystical or superstitious explanations mankind has invented to explain his peculiar place in this peculiar universe. I didn't really jump directly into scientific explanations and evidence; I suppose I didn't really give it much thought at all.
Sagan, however, through a twenty-some-year-old TV miniseries, managed to reawaken my sense of wonder, drawing me into the world of cosmology and physics with the clarity of his explanations and his remarkable enthusiasm for the subject. Watching episode after episode, I experienced the same sense of awe and wonder I had as a child in church, with all the incense and Russian words (this was a Byzantine Catholic church, which is like a regular Catholic church without all the guilt and Latin). For Sagan, the universe was its own cathedral.
That sense of mystery, the awakening of curiosity, these are the legacies of Carl Sagan, who passed away ten years ago today. His work has touched people of all ages, all over the world, and many of them are celebrating him today. Here are a few links if you'd like to learn a little more about one of my favorite humans of all time:
Cosmos DVD set (Amazon)
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (Amazon)
Reader Comments (2)
Billions and Billions did it for me.
[...] I don’t like getting all worked up about the future because it depresses me - I hated studying astronomy in college because we learned that eventually the sun will burn out and earth will go into deep freeze or some crap, and civilization will end. That makes me feel like all the work people do in their lives will end up being for nothing. History and people and relationships and technological advances will cease to exist and no record of life will remain. My Carl Sagan Loving Companion thinks thinks that my spin on astronomy, and not astronomy itself, is what is depressing. To each his own, Dear Companion. In the meantime, while civilization still exists, maybe we can just stop selling it off in bits and pieces. I’d hate to think that when the sun finally burns out, it will be for the best. [...]