TO SEE THE FOREST

James Trefil’s criticism of authors Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan (“Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors,” Nov. 22) is beside the point. Enough has been said about how distinct humans are.

Time to interpret the unity and similarities in nature. To see the forest for the trees we are cutting. To see intelligence and complexity as relative to scale or point of view.

Smaller societies simply grow their tools. Trees and coral are built with intelligent consultation between branches.

It’s as absurd to isolate human abilities as to consider a woodland without fungi or the universe without other life. The authors invoke an interconnected world, and a single source for living forms that resemble us because we resemble them!

Let’s get on with the exploration.

THOMAS M. CUSHING

AVALON