Man of Substance. Carl Sagan..Author, Astronomer

One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.

Here’s to you, Carl. You’ve been gone now for 10 years.

But you brought wonder to us.

You taught us that we don’t need to look to myths to find awe; that we don’t have to search for it in old stories of gods and heavens that never existed.

No, the wonder and the awe are right in front of us: In a flower, a butterfly, in all of nature. From the depths of the ocean to the vast reaches of outer space.

You taught us that reality is incredible, and that science is a way of thinking, and that it’s for everyone.

That each of us is literally made from the stuff of stars.

Thank you. I never met you, but your television serial aired by Doordarshan [the Indian tevlevsion service] changed my life, a long time ago.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.

~ William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

Like the stars, you shine on.