I will always miss Carl

Carl Sagan on science and belief: There's a lot we don't know. It's what I believe. But that doesn't mean that every fraudulent claim has to be accepted. We demand the most rigorous standards of evidence especially on what's important to us.

This exchange exemplifies one of the things I think is best about Carl Sagan, and one of the things I intend to emulate as an educator and a scientist. Carl is great at the charismatic, empathetic emotional communication. In order to make this point about how important it is that we demand evidence for the thing we want to be true, he goes deeply personal -- he talks about how much he misses his parents, and how much he wants to just speak with them again for five minutes. His voice breaks a little when he says it. He brings authenticity to the conversation simply by being unabashedly and almost naively authentic. He says this, and you know how he must feel, because he communicates with everything he is how he feels. And when he says, 'because I want to speak with them again so badly, I have to demand rigorous evidence from anyone who says they can do that for me,' you know that he's right.

What I intend to emulate is his ability to communicate authentically by being unafraid to be authentic. No rancor, no anger, just sincerity.

I think part of what I love about him is that he is speaking, from the child within him that wants to speak to his parents, as the adult who understands evidence-based science, to the child and adult in you. I say that because of a line from his novel "Contact" that I always found very compelling (and which I'll paraphrase): "Being in love means being able to be every possible age with your partner and be entirely comfortable." Carl Sagan knew what it meant to be Little, and knew what it meant to be an Adult, and was unselfconsciously able to shift between those things.

I never want to lose contact with the little girl in me who is thrilled to watch bees buzz, who has to stop and talk to flowers sometimes, who narrates for birds' romantic drama. And I never want to stop growing into this adult that I'm growing into (of whom I remain kind of intimidated!) who has an increasingly sharp wit and discernment, who actually understands genetics and developmental biology, who has a fierce desire to set things to right and protect and support those who need help. And to be both of those things and all of those things at once seems to me to be the best personal project I can set my will to.