I always say,
Like,
I love you,
And he'll always be like,
I love you 3000.
And the 3000 is a reference to Tony Stark or something,
But the three comes from Shakespeare.
Like if I tell you once,
I tell you twice,
I tell you thrice,
Know that I mean it.
That is,
I think,
A perfect encapsulation of how he processes the world,
Right?
The three times it's from Shakespeare,
But the 3000 is from Tony Stark.
Sparks was a big part of exposing me to things that I wouldn't have been exposed to at that age.
Like between the ages of 8 to 12 totally opened up the universe for me in the realm of fictional storytelling.
I was pretty much like into superheroes,
Like most children between the ages of 5 and 10 when they're getting into comic books.
But I think it all started with a love of story and imagery and language.
And my friendship with Sparks was a key part of that.
I think he informed my storytelling more than any single person and not in this deliberate way,
Right?
He's very natural and unconscious,
Although he's very intelligent and thoughtful,
But it's just sort of his gift to the world is his way of seeing and speaking.
Yeah,
It is interesting.
He likes to call me his godsend.
There was never a time when he would have been able to take over my material needs,
Which is how I thought of a godfather in its materialistic sense,
Like if your parents don't die or something.
But spiritually,
Emotionally,
He was a constant presence in my life for most of my childhood and adolescence.
I mean,
I don't know if anybody else thinks it's cool,
But I think it's really cool.
I think it's a really cool and precious story.
It's one of the things I treasure most in this life.
It's such a strange thing that happened and could happen.
This eight-year-old boy meeting this late 30s,
Early 40s black man who was always on the margins of society,
Always like the mayor of wherever he went.
In 2019,
There's been,
I mean,
The thing is this has happened multiple times,
Where I would find Sparks or he would find me,
Like somebody who had mentioned somebody about his godsend,
And they would call me.
We would get his ID in place and his social security payments back in place.
And then he was mugged again or something,
And he lost the ID or some other huge setback.
In 2019,
This was the second or third time that I'd lost touch with him.
And it was the dead of winter,
And I was very concerned about him.
And he had mentioned that he'd been sleeping in a baseball dugout.
So I went to my friend Steven's to spend the night,
And I arrived at Steven's place at 2 a.
M.
And he had forgotten to leave the door unlocked for me,
And I didn't want to wake him up.
And then I thought,
Well,
I'm hungry.
So I went down to some bar in the rail yard area,
And I ate there.
And then I was driving,
And there's a park there.
And I remembered he had mentioned this park.
I was like,
Is that the park?
And so I parked,
There's like a part of a train there in that park.
It's pitch black.
There's no lights there.
And so he mentioned the baseball dugout.
I didn't say baseball dugout,
But I see this football field or soccer field.
And I walk out,
And I see a body lying there.
And I go and I try my light.
And I was like,
Sparks?
And it was not sparks.
And I was like,
Sorry.
And then I went and found another guy,
And he was also not sparks.
And I was walking,
And I just felt like I was kind of hopeless.
But I did see a baseball dugout.
It was hard to see anything.
It was so dark.
I was using the light of my iPhone.
And so I see the baseball dugout,
And then I walk over,
And I see a body sitting upright with sunglasses on.
And it's very,
Very cold,
So cold.
And he's dressed appropriately as one can be.
And I say,
Sparks?
He says,
Yes,
This deep,
Honeyed baritone.
And I was like,
You don't sound surprised to hear from me.
It's 2 AM,
And we haven't spoken in four months.
You don't see it all surprised.
And he was like,
Well.
In his rich voice,
He's like,
I was dreaming.
And I was riding Bubba,
His deceased terrier,
Whatever dog,
Like Falkor from The Never Ending Story.
It was very bright because of the two moons of the never-ending world.
And when we landed,
Bubba turned to his tiny-sized dog self.
So he's urging him on towards me.
And he sees me in his dream in the distance.
And as he heard me say sparks in his dream,
He heard me in this world.
Thank you for listening to episode 42 of Bite-Sized Blessings.
I hope you've enjoyed listening to these companion episodes,
Episode 41 and episode 42,
And the stories from both Sparks and Sama.
I hope you've enjoyed these episodes as much as I've enjoyed producing them.
I'm so grateful they shared the story of their friendship with me,
Of how they met,
The trials and tribulations they've seen,
And how their friendship has withstood and still stands firm.
Thanks to Sama for his stories for episode 42.
And thanks also to the creators of the music used.
Frank Schroeder,
Lilo Sound,
Alexander Nakarada,
Chilled Music,
And Winnie the Moog.
For a complete attribution,
Please see the Bite-Sized Blessings website at bite-sized-blessings.
Com.
On the website,
You'll find links to other episodes,
Change makers,
Books and music I think will lift and inspire you.
Thank you for listening,
And here's my one request.
Be like Sama.
Cherish your friendships.
Cherish those you love.
And don't forget to tell them every day.
