 Welcome to Spark of Humanity. It's about claiming your spark of humanity. I'm Maura Quinn. Martha Holden is here. She's gonna help us explain to us what that is, why you wanna claim it. And this is Ann Wade, who is learning about the Spark of Humanity Network. This is a production of the Spark of Humanity Network. And we're gonna start with this booklet, which it's not really important what's on the outside of this booklet, but it's what's on the inside. And that has very much to do with your spark of humanity. Martha, if you'd like to start. Okay, just to say there is a video on the website, which the website is www.sparkofhumanity.net. And there's a short three minute video that has this book animated. This is sort of the storyboard from it, but we're gonna read from it today. In everyone, in each one of us, there is a spark of humanity. Sometimes we are afraid that something might damage our spark. We are afraid it might be put out. It can't be, even though at times we are not feeling it. Sometimes our sparks are defended. Sometimes they are distorted. Sometimes they are baffled. Sometimes all three. Sometimes so much, we're not even aware we have one. Regardless, in everyone we meet, in everyone we think of, there is a spark of humanity. In us too, regardless of how baffled or distorted or defended. All sparks are made of the same stuff. Sparks have a natural affinity for each other. When you, through your spark, affirm and connect with the spark in another, regardless how defended or distorted or baffled they are. Their spark is strengthened. That changes things. It seems that the strengthened spark acts to erode the defenses, release the distortions, and clarify the bafflement. From the inside. It is very good. How might you claim your spark? Well, that's what we're gonna talk about. Martha, can you give us an idea of how this first came to you, this idea? I understand that you were a prosecuting attorney in California. I was out in California. I'd been sort of wandering around, being a lawyer, varying sorts, varying places. And I got let go from my job as a prosecutor and was offered a job as a defense attorney. And I had been so inculturated into the law enforcement mentality that I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to get my head around being a defense attorney. So I was thrashing around one night in bed as this new life was looming on the horizon. And you may very well have had this happen and you may have too. Suddenly there was like this insight. This, it wasn't a voice. It wasn't just these words, this conviction. There's a spark of humanity in everyone or every human being has a spark of humanity. And that gave me a foundation to move into the change to becoming a defense attorney. Realizing that my clients had sparks of humanity, which is relatively easy, but it was in the federal system so that the judges, the clerks, the FBI agents, the secret service agents, they all had spark of humanity. And so I developed really, I wouldn't have called it that then but now it was a spiritual practice of being in touch with my own spark of humanity and through that recognizing and interacting with the affirming the spark of humanity and the people I was dealing with professionally. So that's dealing with them professionally. They're spark of humanity, but the people that you were, you were the defense attorney. You had been the prosecuting attorney. So you had been in the position of you're, you did something wrong. You're gonna be in trouble for it. And you had to, your clients now were the people that you used to prosecute. Well, not actually, you know, it was a different role. Okay. I didn't have any contact with the defendants when I was prosecuting, except maybe in the courtroom, but they would be insulated for me by their attorneys. So it's, you know, it wasn't, but it was a role shift. Right. And I had been in the state juvenile system and I was in the federal system. So they weren't the same people at all. Right. And actually the law enforcement people I was working with weren't the same people. But it was the, it was the conceptual shift from being enculturated because I was hanging out with the police officers because they were so much fun. And then cultureated, looking at them in a certain way. Just becoming part of that culture. Okay. And how, can you give us an example of how this was helpful to you in dealing with that and in moving forward in your career? In your life? A couple, well skip the life, let's do the career first. Okay, career. The first time I really became aware of the example I can think of, I was in a holding cell with a client in the federal marshal's office and we were, I think three locked doors away from the marshal's. They could see us, but they couldn't hear us. And if they needed to come to me for help or I needed their help, they might not hear and it would take them a while to get there. And my client was not happy with what I was telling him and he reached down and grabbed a pencil like this and the impression I had was that he was gonna jab it into my eye. Wow. And, but because I had been connecting in with his spark of humanity throughout our relationship, he picked it up and they just sort of like put it down. Sort of like, you know, I give up, which was, for which I was grateful. And the other time when I was a lawyer that I was aware of at a friend of mine, I quit that job, she was a defense attorney, she was representing somebody who'd been accused of sexually molesting his, I think, three year old niece. And the family wanted to have a gathering, a meeting about this, to talk about this because the alleged perpetrator was denying it. And so we went up into the foothills outside Sacramento to meet with the family and it was a big room and there were maybe 20 or 30 people sitting in it to have this family conference and she wanted me to come along. I'm not quite sure why she invited me, maybe just for support, but I had no role there other than just being there. So I sat there and just connected with from my spark, the spark of humanity with everybody in the room. Including the defendant, the one accused of this crime. And I didn't pay any attention to what people were saying. I just was there connecting with their sparks. And after about somewhere between half an hour and an hour, and I could sort of feel this, but I was tuned into the sparks. So it was sort of like those, like golden haze in the way I was perceiving things. And if somewhere between half an hour and hour, the defendant confessed. Wow. And once again, there's no proof, but it seemed to me that by affirming and connecting with the sparks that that had changed the atmosphere. So he felt safe enough? Yes. So treated it as safe enough to be vulnerable to what he, horrifically, what he did. Well, without any judgment on it. And to trust his spark. To trust somehow that he would be okay. That as the book says, the spark cannot be extinguished. It cannot be put out. That he could move forward with his life and deal with it without trying to deny it or hide it. Regardless of the outcome, but to just say this is. He would be better this way by being open to the truth to, I mean, he didn't know the spark language, but essentially to trust his spark. Right. So yeah, those are the two instances that I think of. This was a long time ago. Those are pretty powerful instances. Right, that's right. That would make you think maybe there's something to this. Right. And move forward. Like there's something else moving within all of us. Right. Some kind of connection within all of us. And that spark of humanity is an access point. An access and an affirmation so it strengthens the connection that is already there. Yes. So it's because our minds are very powerful. And how we hold them and what we do with them makes a big difference in our experience. You know, quantum physics, we're all learning this stuff these days. Right. Yeah. It's very interesting. It is interesting. It's very interesting. Do you, Anne, you're just being, you're just learning about this spark of humanity. Have you experienced this in your life? Yes. How do you experience your spark? Well, as Martha was talking, I remembered way back when I was taking a community college course out in Illinois and I would hang out and study at this Forest Preserve where it was common that girls would be abducted and taken out and you'd hear it on the news about girls being, and back then it was just close to the college and I just would go there and kind of carelessly but I felt protected and I was sitting on a picnic table and these guys came up from behind and they took me from behind and they said, you know, I couldn't see their faces but they said, we're gonna take you and we're gonna rape you and kill you and throw you in the woods and nobody's gonna find you and I wasn't scared and when I look back on it, it's like I go scared later but at the time I just stayed so serene and I told them, I said, I'm not the one you want. I'm one of you, you know, I'm not and I get goosebumps when I remember it because I just talked to them and they let me go. Wow, and then I got to my class and told my instructor what had just happened and that's when I like fell apart. Yeah, right, yeah. But I think I've had many instances where I, even just recently when I go to a community homeless shelter meal in Barry at the congregational church and you know, you just, even though these people are so down and out and I can, if I really get out of my own head and I look and feel what or some compassion or something happens to me sometimes when I go to these things and I can feel their goodness and are there troubles or but there would have been a time where I would have been like those aren't my people. I'm not homeless, I'm not poor, I don't belong here but I've been invited to go and the more I go, it's like the more I really, I like going there because I can humble myself and understand that the spark lives with everybody. It's not always comfortable and sometimes it, you know, I do feel a little like, oh, I'm gonna kinda scoot away from this person but I do feel like I'm glad that Martha is talking about this because it is- Well, it's a language to your experience. Yes, that's true. But it helps you put words on it and to understand what you're experiencing and to have more confidence going into strange, maybe sketchy situations with people who would be good for you to be connecting with for whatever reason, to strengthen their spark or to exercise your own. Right. You were talking about, I'm not drawing it blank, I just, since you've mentioned this to me and gave me the booklet, I read it and you know, initially I thought, okay, all right, spark, whatever and but it really is funny. The more that I sit with it and I'm with my own spark, I kind of can feel a greater ability to communicate and be with other people, especially with people that I may not agree with at a particular time or that are really driving me a little crazy or stepping on close to my toes and I just wanna get away from them but there are some situations where your voice is important and you need to be engaged and instead of just running away from it and hiding or getting into a big argument and a conflagration, you know, a big flare and stuff, it's just sort of, okay, I have a spark of humanity, you have a spark of humanity, let's start there. It's amazing but it works. Right. I don't know why it works. No, but it does. And the thing I like about it because I'm basically a coward and I don't like conflict or anything. I like to have a nice, calm, peaceful environment and this work is done without words and without the agreement of the other person. Right. When somebody's stepping close to your toes and you're getting irritated, you could claim your spark and then connect with and affirm their spark and from my experience is that that change, it does as the book says, it changes things. Yeah. It changes things and what I find and what you intimated and what somebody who was in this work on the beginning said, it's changing me. The book and what we put out is about this is how you can change people who are bothering you, this is how you can change situations. It has an application worldwide. There's nobody that you can't work with the spark of. But the part that I'm beginning to accept more is that doing this work changes me and that strengthening my, when I connect with your sparks or your sparks, that that strengthens, my spark is strengthened by that and hopefully yours is too. Yeah. And that then with the strength and spark, it's not just your defenses that are being eroded, your distortions that are being released, your clarifying, distortions that are, your bafflement that's being clarified, it's mine too. Yeah. And that's because I always like to think that, well, I can see that you have a problem and you know, let me help you. But I'm fine just the way I am. Thank you for having me. You take somebody else's inventory. I was like, well, that guy's got a real problem. I will connect with your spark because, you know, because I'm so big and strong and spiritually pure, I will do that when I'm finding, this is wonderfully humbling. Yeah. Oh, okay. My defenses are being eroded as you were saying and you were saying with the homeless dinners, you know, it's changing me. And because I trust it, I trust this work more than I trust my previous experience of myself. I think that often people are not willing to change because this is what's familiar. And I'm going to cling to it. It may not have worked very well, but I'm not going to give it up. It's certainty. People are looking for certainty. And when there's uncertainty, initially there's that thing, but people need uncertainty and certainty. It's a paradox. We need to grow. And this is, and so that being willing to, okay, I trust the integrity of the spark of humanity and this insight in the process more than I trust my judgment about what I need or what's good for me. That my resistance, my, you know, my balking, it's so. Because what? At least in theory, in practice, we have to find out every day. Well, is it in, do you know that in quantum physics, not that I'm a physicist or anything like that, but in quantum physics, the idea of whatever you observe is changed by your observation. So in Schrodinger's cat, if you open the door, was the cat alive or dead? And if you closed the door, would it have been alive or you don't know? Right. Because your observation, that may have opened up the thing that took all the oxygen away and then it's gone. Or that may have been the thing that gave life to it. So you don't know where your purpose is, but it is there. Right. And it's a matter of letting it breathe, I suppose. And observing it, you see, observing it changes it. Yeah. And brings, and strengthens it. Because affirmation strengthens us. Right. As a kid. You know, my older brother would say, you know, you're just doing that for attention. That took me 40 or 50 years to realize, well, people need attention. You know, that's what we, we have to have, we need that affirmation. We need the, we need that support and affirmation. So by supporting the, right. So supporting the spark, tacitly affirms and strengthens that spark. So then things change from the inside. And that allows, that allows some kind of engagement that's not, that they can actually do something. Go forward some way. It can only be constructive. It can only be constructive. Okay, let's talk about that. And that leads us to where this Spark of Humanity Network got its roots, got its start. And that was after the election in 2016. No, no, no, before. Actually, it was the- The network. The situation, the network, the situation at Standing Rock in the summer of 2016 where the native people's water rights were being stomped on by- Evaporated. The military industrial complex put it one way. And I felt passionately about that as I'm sure many people did. Maybe on a variety of sides. But I wanted to do something to help. And in 1991, this is, we're talking the first Gulf War, I was, did some training to do civil disobedience, role-playing civil disobedience. And we were lined up with each other and some guy standing across from who was supposed to be angry and berating me. And I was supposed to be seeing what that felt like and getting used to that. So I wouldn't crumble or hit back or something. Right. And so instead, I focused on the Spark of Humanity. And he just wilted, he said, I can't do this. So I thought, hmm, this might be useful for the allies, the indigenous people at Standing Rock, they had their act together, but the young people who didn't have any coherent spiritual practice and unifying, that this might be good for them because I think if they're facing people with the water cannons and all the rest of the stuff they were facing with the United Front, focusing on the Spark of Humanity, doing the Spark of Humanity, it could change things. I knew it would change things. So my little old lady going out to South Dakota and standing on a soapbox and saying, listen to me, I think that's a great idea. I thought nobody's gonna pay any attention. Right. They get their stuff from YouTube, from the internet. Well, I don't know, squat from the internet and YouTube. I mean, I can barely do it, you know? She goes to the library to do her thing. And so I got in touch with people, friends of mine, who know about that stuff and I said, what do you think of this idea? So we think it's a great idea, you should do this. Get in touch with this person. So I got in touch with them, what do you think? Oh, that's a good idea, why do you do this? So it ended up, the network started forming around creating a three minute video that's on the website of this, here at Orca Media in downtown Montpelier. Beautiful downtown Montpelier. Yes, wet at the moment. And then so other things began, it was like a magnet that drew people and other ideas, but that was the beginning, was just a few people, financial help from somebody. You know, I, yeah, it's all sort of volunteer, voluntary, except for the lovely young man who helped with the, and put the video together. He was a high school kid, he needed some money. But otherwise, everybody was, they liked the idea, so they did it. So that was the beginning of the network and the website. And the idea of the website and doing this is to amplify that, is to give it amplification, give it some kind of voice so that people can be aware of the spark of humanity network, the spark of humanity, being aware, is that the first step? And yes. Being aware that you have a spark of humanity. And then deciding to claim it. We're looking at the building, doing the website as this is part of it, but it takes time and creative energy, which I'm limited. But we're, ways that people can claim their spark. We're looking at having a weekly email going out. How did you claim your spark this week? Oh, I love this. And then having, and then people can write in, they can read other people's responses. So that's one thing, or you can get on the website and say, I want to be listed on the website as a member or an associate or a friend of the spark of humanity network. Just put my name, there is somebody who supports this idea. Or they can make the little books because the directors for making little books are on the website. So you can make those and hand them out to people. Leave them in public bathrooms. And, well, what's the word? Leaflets. What's this? Two minutes. Oh, okay. The leaflets, no, spark of humanity network. You know what happens sometimes is you'd be talking about one thing and then something comes in there like leaflet, bathroom and then boom, you're gone. It's like a bad cue ball on a pool table. Yes, it is like a bad, yes, a cue. Put some right in the hole and you never see them again. Yeah, boom, boom, boom. But the only requirement for being a spark, there is no requirement for... No, and how would I know? You could go down the street and everybody you meet might be a member or associate or friend of the network. You don't know. I like it that way. And it doesn't, you don't have to be a member of the spark of humanity network. The spark of humanity network is the idea is, is that this is an acknowledgement that there is a spark of humanity. Yeah, I guess, yeah. Each, there is a spark of humanity in every human being and in everyone. In everyone. And that awareness is something that we're trying to, because sometimes I think people forget about their humanity. When you're mean to somebody, if, you know, not that I'm ever mean to anybody, but if one is mean to another person, you maybe are forgetting yourself for a second. I mean, have you ever said something and then thought, why did I say that? Right, right. Or when you start labeling somebody else and forgetting that they have a spark of humanity. Yeah. Regardless of what they're doing to you or to anybody else. Yeah. Remembering they have the spark of humanity potentially transforms the situation. Yeah, they may be on a different political side than you are. They may be of a different, who knows what. Right. And, but if you can just start with the spark of humanity. Right. Then you've taken a step. Right. Good. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. That's just about, well, we're counting down. Thank you, Martha Holden on the spark of humanity network. Thank you, Anne Wade for being with us today. I'm more queen. Thank you, Martha. Come back next time we're gonna have more. See ya.