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[0:32] Susan Blackwell: Let's open up the spark file.

[0:37] Susan Blackwell: Welcome to The Spark File, where we believe that everyone is creative, but smart creative people don't go it alone.

[0:37] Laura Camien: I'm Laura Camien.

[0:44] Susan Blackwell: And I'm Susan Blackwell, and we are creativity coaches who help people clarify and accomplish their creative goals.

[0:50] Laura Camien: You should know that just by listening to this podcast, you're joining a warm and wonderful clan of creatives.

[1:23] Susan Blackwell: So without further ado, let's open up the Spark file.

[1:29] Laura Camien: Hi, Susan.

[1:30] Susan Blackwell: Hi.

[1:31] Laura Camien: I was just thinking about how we make the word "file" like three syllables.

[1:38] Susan Blackwell: Yep.

[1:41] Laura Camien: Love it.

[1:42] Susan Blackwell: I love it.

[1:43] Laura Camien: Yeah. Oh, Suze, I've got a spark for you today that I am ready to share.

[1:45] Susan Blackwell: I am ready to receive it, and I was just saying to you that this I have been running since the crack of dawn, and sitting back and getting to drink in the spark you're about to share with me is probably the most delightful and relaxing thing I'll do all day.

[2:08] Laura Camien: What is that phrase you just made me think of? I laughed so hard. It's in a Kurt Vonnegut play. Uh, "sparrow's fart."

[2:18] Susan Blackwell: Like it is sparrow's fart.

[2:18] Laura Camien: He calls someone, he uses it as an insult. He calls someone a sparrow's fart.

[2:23] Susan Blackwell: We've talked about it on the podcast. I laughed so hard. And so you've been up since the sparrow's fart.

[2:34] Laura Camien: That's it right there. Which is apparently like when the sun rises, they let out a little poof of gas. But I just thought, how imaginative to use it as an insult.

[2:45] Susan Blackwell: I feel like just knowing that when the sun rises, the sparrows all just toot a little bit. I feel like we've fulfilled the mission of this episode of The Spark File.

[2:56] Laura Camien: So that's it.

[2:57] Susan Blackwell: Oh God, I can't even tell you how hard I laughed at that.

[3:00] Laura Camien: You're still laughing.

[3:02] Susan Blackwell: It's a gift that keeps on giving.

[3:07] Laura Camien: All right. All right. So listen, I like to think of this as a little ditty. This is just a little gem. It was more of a discovery that I made for myself that I thought maybe others might find this useful.

[3:20] Susan Blackwell: We should note this little fact. We are recording this episode just prior to election day here in the United States.

[3:29] Laura Camien: We have no idea how we're going to be feeling the day after election day, which is when this episode is set to air.

[3:39] Susan Blackwell: If 2020 is any indication, we may not even know who the president is when this episode airs the next day.

[3:48] Laura Camien: We shall see. But one thing I will note is that this election cycle has been anxiety increasing for myself, for many others.

[4:02] Susan Blackwell: And I think it sort of layers on top of a lot of unprocessed anxiety from the pandemic, anxiety from the last election, and the denial of the results.

[4:16] Laura Camien: Like there's just been so much change and upheaval in so many lives. Listener, just I want you to note that as Laura is saying these things, she's gently massaging her third eye. Just get the full picture.

[4:33] Susan Blackwell: What does it mean?

[4:34] Laura Camien: I um I was I forget who I was talking to just the other day. And they just kind of declared out of nowhere, are we all just going to pretend none of it happened?

[4:48] Susan Blackwell: Like, are we all just going back to normal?

[4:50] Laura Camien: And I was like, oh, I hear you. We're never going back. I feel that I mean, it's yeah. So we everyone's been through a lot. And I feel like I have felt a very particular kind of anxiety.

[5:04] Susan Blackwell: And I kept trying to describe it to Wes, who felt his own version of it as well. And the best that I could do was describe it as like it's a mix of fear and anger and confusion and righteousness.

[5:22] Laura Camien: It turns out, Suze, there is a term in psychology called revenge bedtime procrastination.

[5:31] Susan Blackwell: No.

[5:33] Laura Camien: No, although boy. That's a goodie. But what were you gonna say?

[5:37] Susan Blackwell: I'm ashamed to tell you the other night I stayed up until 4 a.m., Suze.

[5:40] Laura Camien: Girl, I was like, I got an email from my life won't report 3 a.m. And that wasn't even the same night. On that night I went to bed at two.

[5:46] Susan Blackwell: But I this is such a sidebar. Please forgive me, folks. That night, I've been doing puzzles to just try to let my brain try to make sense of Jigsaw puzzles or chicks up puzzles.

[6:01] Laura Camien: Yes.

[6:02] Susan Blackwell: Yeah. And um I was it was like 11:30 that night, and Wes was like, I'm gonna hit the sack. And I was like, okay, I think I'm gonna puzzle a little bit more. Like my brain, it's helping my brain.

[6:15] Laura Camien: And I think to myself, there's one more episode of this show that I'm watching that, so I should probably stop puzzling and switch over to that if I want to do that tonight.

[6:23] Susan Blackwell: Okay, just a minute more of puzzling. I look, I I think to myself, after uh what I think is a few minutes, I'm like, oh man, it's probably like 12:30 now. I should I should switch over to that episode.

[6:37] Laura Camien: Susan, it was two.

[6:41] Susan Blackwell: It was two. And then I was like, all right, I'm gonna just one second more. And then in 30 seconds later, it was 3:15.

[6:51] Laura Camien: You almost stayed up to the sparrow's fart.

[6:54] Susan Blackwell: I like to see the sparrow's fart come in and likes to see it go out.

[7:01] Laura Camien: We're on the two sides of that sparrow's fart.

[7:04] Susan Blackwell: Wow, Laura, that's crazy that you stayed up that late.

[7:07] Laura Camien: Well, you know, there's been a lot going on.

[7:09] Susan Blackwell: Two nanas. Just let's retitle this podcast. Your two nanas.

[7:13] Laura Camien: Oh my God. So listen, but for real, Susan, there is a term in psychology that I just discovered. And if everyone else already knew it, forgive me.

[7:24] Susan Blackwell: But that term is called moral distress.

[7:29] Laura Camien: It's a real thing. And this phrase, moral distress, it's most often related to like nurses and doctors who know the right course of action, but they're kept from doing what they need to do because of the rules of the healthcare system or this or that.

[7:47] Susan Blackwell: Wow.

[7:48] Laura Camien: Right. So it a lot of times it refers to the healthcare system. But in the larger sense, in the broadest definition of moral distress, moral distress occurs when one knows the ethically correct action to take, but feels powerless to take that action.

[8:25] Susan Blackwell: So let me tell you a little more about it. I read this article in Psychology Today titled "That Powerlessness You Feel is called Moral Distress." Again, this term really helped me put a name to this particular feeling that has risen up in me so many times over the past few years.

[8:45] Laura Camien: And let me give you some examples. This is these are some examples they gave in this article, and then I thought of a few more. But this goes just dating back, they wrote this during the pandemic.

[8:56] Susan Blackwell: So parents who were caught between homeschooling and sending their children to in-person classes. You know that socializing the child is better for them. And yet you cannot do what's right right now because of the circumstances we're living in.

[9:16] Laura Camien: Individuals whose values and beliefs are in conflict with like their state and federal safety guidelines. So for example, I would like to wear a mask, but I go to the grocery store and no one else is wearing a mask, and I feel this moral distress.

[9:33] Susan Blackwell: Or conversely, because other people may be like, I don't want to wear this mask, and I live in a state where masks are mandatory, and I feel moral distress.

[9:46] Laura Camien: People who were desperate to spend time with family members or the elderly, those who are sick or dying, think of the people in the hospital, but they were unable to be by their side because of health dangers.

[10:03] Susan Blackwell: This feeling of powerlessness, because I know what's right in this situation and I cannot do it.

[10:09] Laura Camien: Um, the Supreme Court declaring that a president has immunity.

[10:18] Susan Blackwell: Uh huh.

[10:18] Laura Camien: And all of us losing our minds. Like this is so contrary to what we have been taught is right, our foundational beliefs about what is right, and we feel powerless to do anything about it.

[10:34] Susan Blackwell: When leaders intentionally lie to divide the country, and we know they're lying, and we're like, well, why can't we do anything about this?

[10:43] Laura Camien: Um when law officers hurt a human being, and we are our foundational belief system is that law officers are here to help us, they are here to make us feel safe, not to harm us.

[11:00] Susan Blackwell: We are morally distressed by this.

[11:03] Laura Camien: Uh, when doctors cannot help a mother who is dying while in labor because of rules, regulations, or they have outlawed the medication that this woman needs, we feel moral distress and the dissonance created in our minds when things happen that are contrary to what we believe to be right and we feel powerless to do anything about it.

[11:33] Laura Camien: All of this really hit home for me. I just feel like for some time now, it just has felt like there's so many unjust things happening, things that feel morally wrong or unfair, and it is very easy for an overwhelming sense of powerlessness to take root. Just the fact that many millions of Americans can't agree on what is right and wrong anymore is morally distressing. So no matter how the election turned out, I think many of us have this lingering moral distress from the past five to eight to ten years. Like it's been a journey.

[12:23] Laura Camien: So, according to this article in Psychology Today, when we are morally distressed, we often feel muzzled, restricted, devalued, unheard, or dismissed. We easily become fueled by anger, disgust, fear, and frustration. And over time, these emotions can fill us with anxiety, depletion, or depression. A sense of being fragmented can set in, leaving us to question who we or others are at their core and what the world is generally. Research shows that moral distress has long-term consequences, such as burnout, exhaustion, numbness, disconnection, and diminished moral sensitivity, also called compassion fatigue.

[13:16] Laura Camien: And the whole root of moral distress is this sense of powerlessness. Like, I don't understand how this person who is so smart is planning to vote in this way, knowing everything that they know. Like it rocks us. Like we can't make sense of it. You cannot apply logic. So the way that moral distress lives in us, like many other things, it sets off our stress response system because we're hardwired to detect and respond to threats, not only physical threats, but psychological and existential threats, like those to our integrity or our foundational beliefs.

[14:18] Laura Camien: Moral distress activates our nervous system. And we know what happens then. We get flooded with a deluge of chemicals that leads to physical, emotional, and cognitive changes, as we would say in the spark file, changes in our hearts, minds, bodies, or behaviors. That's very real, friends. Means our heart rate and blood pressure go up, our muscles tighten, all nonessential functions become dormant or get less support or blood supply for a period of time. Articulating or expressing ourselves appropriately can become difficult or simply too tiring.

[14:56] Laura Camien: Over time, after many threats, we become biased and quickly defensive of perceived potential threats. Our capacity for empathy lessens, it affects our relationship to others and on and on. It triggers our fight, flight, or freeze responses. But over and over and over again, and according to this Psychology Today article, this ongoing dysregulation caused by repeated experiences of unprocessed moral distress can build up at an embodied level. What does that mean? It means it can literally build up in our body, in our tissues.

[15:42] Laura Camien: They say it leaves moral residue or ethical plaque. I am not making these terms up, and I am amazed by it. Moral residue or ethical plaque that lodges itself in our very being, even after any one crisis is over, like an occluded artery, this moral occlusion can threaten our very existence. That is a quote. Again, I am not making it up. Wow. I'm not making it up. And I'm just so happy. Like to know that this whole thing has a name, that whole process I just described is called the crescendo effect.

[16:24] Laura Camien: There's a model that illustrates how moral distress and moral residue are linked and how the lingering feelings and discord from moral distress can cause significant damage over time, especially when someone is repeatedly exposed to morally distressing events. Wow. Now, a lot of things were written about this because of the nurses and doctors during COVID and how incredibly distressing that was for them. But I also, when I read this, I thought, crap, we are all in mortal danger here because I think we're all feeling and have been feeling moral distress for quite some time.

[17:05] Susan Blackwell: Yeah, as you're talking, I, you know, will like go. One of our fun favorite things to do is just to go for a drive.

[17:13] Laura Camien: Yeah.

[17:14] Susan Blackwell: Just go out for a drive. And um when I see Trump flags in people's yards, yeah. And some of them are people we know.

[17:25] Laura Camien: Oh.

[17:26] Susan Blackwell: And I start on this, yeah, this crazy tilt-a-world ride of like, how can that, how can they uh they may be having the same experience, the flip of the coin the other side of the aisle, they're doing the same thing, but I I get into what feels like a spin or a spiral, and I've I have tried sometimes successfully, sometimes unsuccessfully, to not even start, to not even start.

[17:59] Laura Camien: But yeah, I want to be an informed person. So that means taking in news, etc. And um I feel like we're soaking in it. Like I don't know how we everywhere, and I think you're right, Susan, because I think that people who disagree with us politically also feel it, which leads me always to the conclusion of like, right, because they're getting a different reality than we are from the news, and therefore that how is that right?

[18:29] Susan Blackwell: How can that be?

[18:30] Laura Camien: And then I start, and then it'll take me down the road of moral distress because how are we why how have we not fixed our news system and fact checking and all you know, and and then suddenly we're spiraling. I think like having a name to it gave me a little bit of relief because so many times like this anywhere from from rage to frustration to anxiety, like it can leave you feeling like, am I crazy? What like what is happening?

[19:06] Susan Blackwell: Uh-huh.

[19:08] Laura Camien: So like you mentioned, best if we can not go there in the first place. I'd like to talk a little bit about how do we handle it when we feel it coming on.

[19:20] Susan Blackwell: Bring it on.

[19:21] Laura Camien: You ready?

[19:22] Susan Blackwell: It on.

[19:22] Laura Camien: Yes. All right. This particular article is interesting because I found a lot about moral distress, not as much on what to do about it. This article put an emphasis on resilience training, like becoming morally resilient.

[19:37] Susan Blackwell: We've talked about that.

[19:39] Laura Camien: Exactly. I totally get it. That's wonderful. Over time, we want to become more resilient. Great. But what I was looking for is like in the immediate sense, like right now, when I feel moral distress taking hold, what can I do?

[19:56] Susan Blackwell: And the biggest thing I think we can do is to learn to self-regulate.

[20:02] Laura Camien: Like learning to self-regulate, meaning regulate our nervous system. It has a million benefits. This will be self-regulation is like the answer to a thousand different um quote unquote problems. A million benefits to learning to regulate, but helping to deactivate moral distress is one of them.

[20:24] Laura Camien: So what can help us self-regulate? Meditation, which Susan talked about. Check breathing exercises, check EFT tapping, which I am big on. Check. Check, check. All of them help our nervous systems. All of them are go-to tools that can like help us all manage this.

[21:00] Laura Camien: If I can, I'll and sometimes I might not. If I'm in public, I might not do the part of like I cross my arms and put one hand on each shoulder, and simply say to myself, I am safe, I am loved, I am safe, I am loved, and I will just breathe deeply and repeat that a few times until I feel my body calming down. Simple, but it works in the moment if you're like in a pinch, and I just need to calm down.

[21:34] Laura Camien: It can bring your mind back from the macro view of the world, the wars, the threats, the fears, and back into the micro. Do I have food, water, and shelter? Do I have loved ones? Yes, I am safe. I am loved. That is of immediate help.

[22:00] Susan Blackwell: Nice.

[22:01] Laura Camien: Then I will ask myself, what is within my control right now? What is within my control? So many of us have heard the serenity prayer.

[22:15] Susan Blackwell: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

[22:24] Laura Camien: So fun fact, many people attribute this prayer to Alcoholics Anonymous, and they think that's where it began, but it actually dates back about 10 years before AA started to a Protestant theologian named Reinhold Niebuhr in the early 1930s.

[22:45] Susan Blackwell: No matter where it came from, it has been a very useful invocation for people who are struggling with things that feel overwhelming.

[22:55] Laura Camien: My mom had this phrase embroidered and framed.

[22:59] Susan Blackwell: I think she embroidered it and then framed it.

[23:01] Laura Camien: But she had a version of this prayer hanging in our house growing up.

[23:04] Susan Blackwell: And it was right next to the one, the embroidered sign that I told you about, Suze, that has hung in our house forever, that said, dull people have immaculate homes.

[23:20] Laura Camien: We weren't big on having a perfectly, uh, you know.

[23:24] Susan Blackwell: Yeah, you get it.

[23:25] Laura Camien: You get the point.

[23:26] Susan Blackwell: But so, mom, those felt like to me growing up, these two mantras were like front and center. You know, as a kid, you're just a sponge. You're like, I guess these two things are really important.

[23:37] Laura Camien: Yeah.

[23:37] Susan Blackwell: Um, so they stayed with me. But keeping our minds on what exactly is in our control can help to fight feelings of anxiety or powerlessness.

[23:46] Laura Camien: So setting aside the election, all of the very big topics and very real concerns we may be having that we do not have immediate control over, I thought we could take a look real quick at the things that are within our control.

[24:01] Susan Blackwell: First, I want to acknowledge our privilege here. Not everyone is able to answer the question that I ask myself and say that they have food and water and shelter. And I do not take that for granted. Not for one second.

[24:15] Laura Camien: For that reason, I'm gonna start our list of things that are within our control with number one, we can control how and how often we help others.

[24:27] Susan Blackwell: Whether this is donating to causes, volunteering at the community center, helping your neighbor get to their doctor's appointments. You do not need to be in a position of power to make a difference.

[24:37] Laura Camien: And the good news is helping others helps you too.

[24:42] Susan Blackwell: There's a ton of research about how volunteering improves our health. They don't even understand all the linkages yet, but they have proven time and time again that people who volunteer, people who help others improve their own physical and mental health.

[24:58] Laura Camien: The American Heart Association says compared to non-volunteers, volunteers have less depression, less anxiety, higher self-esteem, higher life satisfaction, greater happiness, and a greater sense of meaning in life.

[25:13] Susan Blackwell: I mean, damn, that's a list of benefits. I know that I personally always feel better when I take the focus off of myself and put it on to someone else who needs help and just focus on them and ask, you know, how can I help? What can I do?

[25:32] Laura Camien: And that could be offering your partner or your parents help in the kitchen, could be organizing a fundraising effort or a protest.

[25:40] Susan Blackwell: Yeah. It's one thing that we can control how often and how we help others.

[25:47] Laura Camien: Number two, we can control how we treat ourselves.

[25:52] Susan Blackwell: Mindset, taking care of ourselves, how kind you are. When I think about moral residue and the physical ramifications of the stress we've all gone through for the past nearly a decade, I think how we treat ourselves is even more essential.

[26:08] Laura Camien: This includes the food we put into our bodies, how often we move our bodies, the amount of rest we allow ourselves.

[26:16] Susan Blackwell: Boy, that hits home after our little conversation there.

[26:19] Laura Camien: Come on, come on.

[26:21] Susan Blackwell: And the way we speak about ourselves and to ourselves, these things matter. Each and every one of us is in control in large part of these aspects.

[26:34] Laura Camien: So choosing to treat ourselves with kindness, offering ourselves grace, nourishing ourselves, all these things will help us to self-regulate and to counter the effects of stress and powerlessness.

[26:47] Susan Blackwell: Number three, next thing we can control to a large degree who we surround ourselves with or invest ourselves in and how we treat them.

[26:57] Laura Camien: When the world at large feels out of control, we can look to the day-to-day world we have created for ourselves. And one of the things I feel so grateful for, this has not always been true in my life, is that I have built a world largely due to choosing Wes as my partner and you as my friend and business partner.

[27:04] Susan Blackwell: I have built a world where I am surrounded. I mean truly surrounded by the most positive, encouraging, empathetic, inspiring, courageous, creative human beings.

[27:33] Laura Camien: And I mean a 360 degree view. I look around and I have no unnecessary drama. Of course, there can be healthy conflict or disagreement, but it is a day-to-day existence that is based on love and respect and silliness and laughter and creativity.

[27:51] Susan Blackwell: And I want to say to everyone it is possible to surround yourself with people who share your values and make the world a better place. It starts with who we choose to invest our time and energy into.

[28:07] Laura Camien: And once we make that investment, treating each other with kindness and respect.

[28:13] Susan Blackwell: And finally, number four, who and what we give our attention to, closely related to the previous one. But who and what we give our attention to is within our control.

[28:25] Laura Camien: If we give our attention to drama, we're likely to get more drama. If we give our attention to things that make us feel bad, or even things that make us feel meh.

[28:36] Susan Blackwell: We get more meh. Like social media, giving away our time and energy to something that doesn't feed us energetically, emotionally, or spiritually, can contribute to that moral distress and to the feelings of powerlessness.

[28:52] Laura Camien: But we can choose where to put our attention. Where we put our attention can be the biggest gift we give ourselves and those around us.

[29:00] Susan Blackwell: There's so many things that are within our control, but those are my top four. I don't know about you, Suze, but I found it soothing to know there was a name for the very particular mix of feelings that come up when things don't feel right in the world, but I don't have any power to do anything about it.

[29:21] Laura Camien: Let's name it to tame it. It's moral distress.

[29:26] Susan Blackwell: Laura, love this.

[29:29] Laura Camien: You love it?

[29:30] Susan Blackwell: Right on time.

[29:31] Laura Camien: All right. Well, listen, we've got a lot of ethical plaque built up, and we need to get moving.

[29:37] Susan Blackwell: I agree.

[29:39] Laura Camien: I'm I need to go have my ethical plaque levels checked.

[29:42] Susan Blackwell: I know. It's like if only we had a little like a cholesterol pill for it.

[29:46] Laura Camien: We need to, we need to get a move on. Like let's learn how to handle this.

[29:53] Susan Blackwell: I'm so aware that the words I'm saying right now will be heard the morning after the election, and it's hard to predict how we'll be feeling if we have any answers.

[30:02] Laura Camien: Yeah.

[30:02] Susan Blackwell: But I think it's clear, whatever the results of the election, unfortunately, we are likely to have continued disputes and disagreements. I don't think our moral distress is going to dissipate immediately.

[30:16] Laura Camien: Even if we're thrilled with the election outcome, I think our country has a lot of healing to do.

[30:24] Susan Blackwell: I am personally praying the results of the election usher in a new era, one where our foundational principles are restored. People come together and remember our common humanity, and we can all begin to regulate our collective nervous system.

[30:42] Laura Camien: But in the meantime, we can bring our focus inward and start with our own.

[30:50] Susan Blackwell: Amen.

[30:53] Laura Camien: Amen.

[30:54] Susan Blackwell: Thank you, Laura Camien.

[30:56] Laura Camien: You bet for the morally distressed.

[30:59] Susan Blackwell: You got your finger on my pulse over here.

[31:01] Laura Camien: Oh, do I?

[31:03] Susan Blackwell: Yes.

[31:04] Laura Camien: I was so happy to have a name for it.

[31:06] Susan Blackwell: I can't wait to tell Nathan.

[31:09] Laura Camien: That feeling, that spiral when we get whipped up, that's what it is.

[31:09] Susan Blackwell: That's what it is.

[31:15] Laura Camien: We know what is right and we feel powerless to do anything about it. And it is crazy making.

[31:21] Susan Blackwell: Yeah.

[31:22] Laura Camien: Thank you, Laura.

[31:23] Susan Blackwell: You're welcome. I'm gonna go tell Nathan. But first, we're gonna wrap this up.

[31:27] Laura Camien: We're gonna wrap it.

[31:28] Susan Blackwell: Friends, that's it. This episode of The Spark File was made on the lands of the Lenape and the Mohican people.

[31:34] Laura Camien: And as always, we hope this puts another bunch of sparks in your file.

[31:39] Susan Blackwell: Listen to me. If there's a spark you'd like us to explore, or if you'd like to learn more about how to coach with us to accomplish your creative goals, you can email getcreative@thesparkfile.com or you can reach us through our website, thesparkfile.com.

[31:55] Laura Camien: We'll even happily take your feedback. But you know the price of admission. First, you gotta share a creative risk that you've taken recently.

[32:02] Susan Blackwell: You can follow us on social at The Spark File and be sure to subscribe, rate, and five-star review this podcast. It really helps other listeners to find us.

[32:12] Laura Camien: Also, if you liked this podcast, we hope that you'll share it with people that you love. Maybe it will be of use to them.

[32:18] Susan Blackwell: And if you didn't like it, I am safe and I am loved, and so are you.

[32:26] Laura Camien: Nice.

[32:26] Susan Blackwell: If something lights you up and gets your creative sparks flying, we're writing you a forever permission slip to make that thing that's been knocking at your door.

[32:36] Laura Camien: It's your turn to take that spark and fan it into a flame.

[32:40] Susan Blackwell: You know you gotta take it and make it.

[32:49] Laura Camien: When I bump into something that inspires me, I dump it in the spark files.

[32:58] Susan Blackwell: Could be something that I wanna make or how I wanna be.

[33:03] Laura Camien: I'll pump it in the spark files.

[33:08] Susan Blackwell: I jump into my spark files.

[33:08] Laura Camien: Spark files.

[33:13] Susan Blackwell: Let's open up the spark files.