Made of Stars

One of my favorite shirts is a long sleeve purple shirt printed with golden words: “We are made of stars.” I also have it in light lavender thermal with white letters.

Evolution tells us that we all come from a common ancestor. By “we all,” I am not referring to human beings. I’m referring to all life on Earth. Genomic studies have shown that human beings share DNA with every living thing on the planet. Humans have DNA that is 85% similar to that of mice and 41% similar to bananas. BANANAS! That means that 41% of your genetic code is the same as a banana. How crazy is that?

It isn’t just that all life comes from a common ancestor either. All matter is a combination of atoms. In the early days of our universe, more like the early seconds after the big bang, it started cooling to a state that allowed subatomic particles to assemble into atoms. The atoms, namely hydrogen and helium, fused together over millions of years into stars. Through a long process that I won’t explain (I’m no Physicist), a star ages and goes supernova. It explodes. That exploded star travels through the universe and binds together in a new location, creating new stars and elements.

The human body is largely made up of water. Water is a combination of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom. The atoms that make up every human being, every everything, come from stardust that traveled over billions of years through billions of light-years of space.

So, next time you look in the mirror and frown at some imperfection reflected back at you, remember a time when you stood beneath the night sky and marveled in awe as the stars twinkled in the universe’s inky black depths. Then tell yourself that those incredible celestial giants are the building blocks of all life on this crazy planet. If those stars can twinkle and shine with such awe-inspiring beauty, so can you.