Regarding the title, Dr. Townsend explains that the name, This Ordinary Stardust, comes from a connection to his field of science, biogeochemistry. “…as most of us probably know, there’s this very cliche saying… that we’re all stardust, and we are, right? In the end, the elements that form our world, life… everything, they all originally came from stars, from the incredible heat and fusion of stars… but at some point, and especially going through this, it really hit me that thinking about that we’re all comprised of that, and that in effect those elements are immortal, they have been here since the dawn of time. Everything we are and have is, was, formed by very long, dead, stars now from billions of years ago… and those elements combine in us for awhile… so they really do carry the full story of the world and they continue us on in their own way when we disintegrate and move to something else… just the thought of that, in that light, actually brings me a lot of comfort… that form of immortality and that form of what connects us all in a whole bunch of ways.”
![](https://writersvoices.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Green-Quote-e1453672031762.png)
Writing was a way for me to cope with hard moments. It just came to me and so I started to do that as soon as Neva, my daughter, was diagnosed.”
![](https://writersvoices.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Alan-Townsend.jpg)
![](https://writersvoices.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/carolinequotes.jpg)
Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality”.
![](https://writersvoices.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/This-Ordinary-Startdust.jpg)
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