For Small Creatures Such as We by Sasha Sagan. A Review

Sasha Sagan/Brian C. Seitz

Sasha Sagan is the daughter of famous parents, who happen to be Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan.

Both her parents were prolific writers and co-wrote many books together. If there is such a thing as DNA-enhanced creativity, I'm sure Sasha's got it.

FOR CREATURES SUCH AS WE is her first book. But she's written articles for a variety of publications and is also a filmmaker and speaker.

In the first pages of her book, Sasha quotes her Mother to set up the theme: "For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love."

Sasha fairly early on makes it clear that she is an atheist, albeit a friendly and empathetic one.

She is well able to make a point, sometimes quite bluntly, but avoids coming across as mean-spirited. Because she genuinely isn't.

She says of religion, "the only sin would be to pretend [to believe]." Later on, she notes that "religion isn't believing, it's behaving."

Which, I have to admit, when you take organized religion as a whole, especially in this day and age, is setting the bar quite high.

For the most part, Sasha's book explores different rituals, including birth, weddings holidays and dying.

She openly embraces doubt, uncertainty and transition as the foundation upon which life is built. And she sees rituals as ways that humans have tried to cope with these realities.

In a nutshell, that is the gist of Sasha's book.

But it would be a disservice to imply that her writing, although rooted in science, is devoid of emotion. The best way to offer evidence of this is to offer samples of what she has to say.

"Why does the provability of something rob us of the thrill of it?"

"Uncertainty is real. It need not be glossed over or hurried."

"As with love, it's our vulnerability that opens us up to something deeper. Our willingness to be wrong..."

A fourth of the way through FOR SMALL CREATURES SUCH AS WE, Sasha observes that xenophobia, authoritarianism, and violence are what's wrong with the human race. She says that cruelty towards each other is the original sin.

She makes a clever distinction between science and religion. She observes that scientists try to disprove each other's theories by building on them, ultimately strengthening our knowledge base; but religion's purpose is to uphold tradition and quite often squash spiritual and intellectual growth. 

Here's more of her observations:

"There is something about facing fear that defines growing up."

"It's hard to hold both the mythology of America, its aspirations and promises, and its crimes, in my head at the same time."

She refers to some of her father's work and remarks that we are breathing some of the same air particles as hundreds of generations of those before us. 

Her sense of time and eternity is influenced by the fact that some of the stars we see in the evening sky have already burned out, yet we continue to see them.

Turning to the topic of the importance of having a critical eye, she quotes James Baldwin, "I love America more than any other country in this world, and exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."

In a nod to Baldwin, she goes on to say that "Barbeques and fireworks are all well and good for celebrating national independence. But I propose the real ritual should be teaching ourselves and our children to question our own preconceptions."

One might be tempted to look at Sasha as a very privileged person. Growing up with famous parents, who were financially well off. With a nanny in Ithica, New York. Having ample opportunities to travel and learn. But her insights are not potshots.

When she was fourteen, Sasha lost her father to cancer. One of the last things Carl Sagan said to his daughter, on his deathbed, being an absolute realist, was "I'm sorry."

Sasha speaks of the human condition, "Every loss you withstand in your life reopens all the others. Every goodbye is every goodbye."

"Being alive is a profoundly beautiful thing," she sums up. "For which each of us should feel deeply grateful."

I enjoyed reading Sasha's book, not because I'm an advocate of atheism, but because she offers an honest assessment of her own point of view.