'Star Stuff' and 'The Uncertainty Principle'

We are made of star stuff. This is the assertion of celebrated astronomer and astrophysicist, Carl Sagan, and a stirring notion worthy of consideration. The impetus for this now coined phrase lies in the fascinating discoveries science has made about the nature of the cosmos and the nature of life. We are made of the very same elements – nitrogen, calcium, iron, carbon, oxygen – as the cosmos. The elements that compose life were created in the nuclear furnaces that are the deep interior of stars. When a star reaches the end of its lifetime, it explodes and these elements are released, generating new stars as well as the planets that surround these stars and all life that develops therein.

Just think about this for a moment. The elements that compose your body were forged in the stars. We really are made of star stuff!

I am certain that most of us, at least once in our lives, have looked up at the stars in absolute awe. And I am betting that in that moment the sheer magnificence of these spinning spheres of gas, trillions of miles away, inspired questions in you about the nature of life and the universe. Where did we come from? Of what are we made? Maybe you were drawn into a moment of silence and reverence for their stunning beauty. As for myself, when I look up at those stars, I say, “Yes. That is where I came from.” And I thank the cosmos for revealing to me the secret of my own worth. I am not suggesting that you must agree with me. I just want everyone to have an occasion to see themselves in a new light – the light of the stars.

It seems to me that we can fall into a place of irreverence for our own lives, our own bodies. There are endless ways to compare ourselves and endless ways to become disappointed – we just don’t measure up. The truth is we are all made of the very same potential – star stuff – and how we view ourselves and what we choose to do with this potential is up to us.

I would like to carry this idea of potential a bit further. Bear with me; we are about to venture into the world of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics is essentially regarded by physicists as part of the fundamental framework for understanding and describing nature at the infinitesimal level. This means we are getting down to the itty bitty atomic particles of which we are all made. While studying these particles, physicists encountered a strange phenomenon; the particles appeared – or responded – according to the conditions under which they were being measured. One such physicist, Werner Heisenberg, went on to develop a principle to describe the limitations of our ability to measure and predict the behavior of such particles, commonly known as the uncertainty principle. I am not so concerned in this moment with trying to delve into the principle itself, but rather to look at its implications. Simply put, Werner found that the atomic particles – the stuff of which all matter is composed, originally star stuff – form a world of potentialities or possibilities, rather than one of things or facts. We are actually made of potential and possibility.

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So, if you ever catch yourself thinking that you are just ordinary or anything less than extraordinary; if you ever think that you are not enough for any reason, simply recite the following:

I was made in the heart of a star! I am beautiful and brilliant! I am the magnificence of life in constant ecstatic motion, and I exist as pure potential and possibility!

Isn’t that great?