In Carl Sagan’s death, an amazing life lesson

Twenty-eight years ago as of December 20, the human race lost one of its finest. Carl Sagan passed away. As an astrophysicist, science communicator, husband, and father, Carl Sagan spent much of his adult life inspiring others. Not by spouting flowery falsehoods, but by conveying — as perhaps no one else could — the radiant majesty of reality.

Sagan’s death at age 62 to myelodysplasia, a rare blood disorder, represented one of the harsher realities of life. But while undeniably unfortunate, it was no less beautiful. As told by his wife Ann Druyan to magician and skeptic James Randi:

“I held Carl’s Hand as he died and I looked at him and he smiled and I said, ‘Goodbye, Carl.’ And he said ‘Goodbye, Ann.’ And he closed his eyes and he died. We knew as we said those words we were never going to see one another again, and it was okay. It was very sad. But it was okay.”

“Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never sought refuge in illusions,” Druyan later recalled. “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 and precious life is.”

Sagan knew that death represents the final brushstroke of a glorious painting. During our limited time in the universe, we get to style the work of art that is our life as we see fit. What an opportunity that is!

“My parents taught me that even though it’s not forever — because it’s not forever — being alive is a profoundly beautiful thing for which each of us should feel deeply grateful,” Carl’s daughter Sasha wrote in 2014. “If we lived forever it would not be so amazing.”

“We knew we were beneficiaries of chance ….” Dryuan wrote. “That pure chance could be so generous and so kind…. That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space and the immensity of time…. That we could be together for twenty years … 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.”

This article was originally published on RealClearScience. It was written by Ross Pomeroy, a regular contributor to Big Think.