CBR15Bingo: You are here
You are here on this planet, in this life. How you are moved to celebrate and acknowledge the passing of time and all of the joy and pain that is part of it is up to you.
Rituals are, among other things, tools that help us process change. There is so much change in this universe, so many entrances and exits, and ways to mark them…each one astonishing in its own way.
― Sasha Sagan, For Small Creatures Such as We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely WorldAs with love, it’s our vulnerability that opens us up to something deeper. Our willingness to be wrong, to let go of our predictions and preconceptions, clears the way to more than we could have otherwise imagined.
― Sasha Sagan, For Small Creatures Such as We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World
Sasha Sagan is the daughter of astronomer and educator Carl Sagan. In this book, she walks us through her personal history, and how the premature death of her father shaped her worldview. It is also her story of, as a new mother, how she will raise her daughter to find the beauty in both the miracles of the universe and in the miracle of connection with other people.
It is more nuanced than that, but these are the two main themes of this book.
The first few chapters of this book hooked me. How does a non-practicing, non-spiritual person find meaning in or create rituals to mark the events of one’s life?
Yes! That’s me! I am not religious but I was raised in a Christian home and still mark the passing of time through rituals passed down from my family and greater community. However, as an adult, I have been blessed (haha) with the freedom to choose when and how I celebrate, and with whom.
I enjoyed the stories and the questions raised by the author. However, there was quite a bit of filler. Each chapter contained multiple examples of rites and beliefs practiced by various cultures. This became tedious. At the halfway mark, I began skimming.
The thing that this book does well is it reiterates the importance of acknowledging the miracle that is life, not from a religious perspective, but from a human perspective.