Today Christians around the world are celebrating this day as “Ash Wednesday” or the day in which we are called to remember that we are mortal beings, with only a finite number of days. By reflecting on the fact that we are composed of elements which come from the Earth and we will one day return those elements to the Earth, we are compelled to examine how we are using the precious days that we do have while we are here.

I remember the one day during my first year as a college student, my professor, Dr. Chad Davies revealed to us that all elemental matter, including the elements from which our own bodies are constructed, originated from inside of ancient stars that exploded and spread the heavy elements throughout the universe. My mind sort of exploded like those stars! Now wait a sec… I came from inside of stars? How does that jibe with what I was taught as a youngster about people being created by God?

But then I remembered the creation story in which Adam is formed by God from the clay of the Earth. And then I remembered Ash Wednesday and the words of the priest on that day,

“Remember man, that you are dust and to dust you shall return.”

Hmm, I am basically made of dirt. I come from the Earth and will one day return to it. The elements come from stars that exploded. The Earth formed from those elements. The Earth’s creatures are composed of the elements of the Earth.

As I learned more, I also learned about the Big Bang Theory of the origin of the universe. It is that point in time where there was nothing at all, and from the nothingness, a big bang occurred. First, a blinding light, followed by heat and some primordial stuff that ejected out and became the first stars.

“Let there be light” -God

Robert Spitzer wrote a fascinating book called, New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy which explores important questions about the formation of the universe. He discusses the precision with which the universe got its start. A few degrees cooler, no big bang. A few degrees warmer, nothing is sustained. It was a perfect setup for the beginnings of the universe and of us.

When I think of Ash Wednesday, I think of the sciencey things I have learned about how the universe was made, how the Earth was formed and how people later appeared, composed of elements coming from exploding stars by way of the dust of the Earth, and I think to myself that there is really no contradiction between the truths of science and the truths of faith in a creator God. Of course there are differences in how these two ways of knowing arrive at what is true, but in the end, the truth is the truth.

On Wednesday I wrote around 1,000 words and Thursday I wrote close to 2,000.

Right now I am up to 55 pages of material with almost 20,000 words written. At this pace I will have close to 100 pages written by the end of 30 days.

I wrote less on Tuesday. Bad winter weather predicted. Watched more Frontline over lunch. Learned some new things. I didn’t know the much touted Patriot missile system had such a low rate of success. It was all over the news how it was shooting down everything that came near it. Turns out, by some estimates it hit 20% or less. One expert said it might have never hit one scud missile.

In one news conference an aide to Gen. Schwarzkopf showed “scud launchers” being destroyed but an unnamed CIA official later said they were petroleum trucks or even milk trucks.

The scuds were actually stopped by British special forces.

Wrote a piece about battleship technology. Word count ?

had another idea but didn’t write it down, now I can’t think of it.

This week I wrote an additional 8,000 words (up 500 words over last week) in my writing project. I struggled to work in the writing each day. Some days I came home dog-tired and just didn’t get it done. But I wrote a bit more on some other days. Overall it was a successful week. My total writing for two weeks is around 16,000 words.

One related piece I wrote that I nearly forgot about was my Oh Shut Up post. It talks about the macho man culture of the military and how men are not really permitted to be anything else but a tough guy. One veteran was shamed in an online forum about Gulf War illness. I didn’t like it, but didn’t want to join the fight there. (Maybe I should have?) But I did write a post about it and shared it on my own online outlets.

In this coming week, I want to make an effort to post some daily updates on my writing progress, just to see how that spurs me to do more with my writing project.

I also lost another 4 lbs. My total weight loss over the two weeks is 8 lbs.

My students and I are working on one project we have chosen that we would like to do for the next 30 days to try to learn a new skill or make some self-improvement change. You can follow our progress by searching Twitter for the #digme406 hashtag (no Twitter account required).

I am actually working on two projects. My main project is to write all that I can over the next 30 days about my experiences during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 on the Battleship Missouri. This week I was able to write on about a dozen different topics. I tried to write every day, but accomplished more on some days than others. I have posted all of this writing on this website under the Sailors of Desert Storm page.

My other self-improvement project is to lose some weight. Over the holidays, I’ve been packing on some extra baggage. I don’t feel as good as I did when I was thinner. I’m doing the Naturally Slim program provided by my employer. I already lost six pounds since I started on Monday! The main things I’ve done are:

• Eat only when truly hungry.
• Don’t eat breakfast.
• Eat more slowly. Chew every bite.
  • Follow a ten-five-ten minute plan where you eat for ten minutes, rest for five and eat for another ten. This gives your brain a chance to feel full before you over eat.
• Stay hydrated. I drink water with a splash of orange juice in it using a 7:1 water to juice ratio.
• Cut out all obvious sweets. (Not easy in my house. My wife is a baker.)