Out of Darkness Comes Light

Today, after having experienced a dark few weeks on so many levels— personal, professional, emotional— the world not happening the way you want it to on so many fronts and believing that nothing could go right… Light happened.

Things have been rough lately despite the rosy picture that is painted (sometimes by our own free will) on social media like Facebook (after all, who wants a negative Nancy posting all sorts of depressing things?).

Out of nowhere, I reconnect with a twenty-something aspiring writer who has just completed an internship in Hollywood with some of the most powerful people in the industry. She’s an extremely talented young lady with a lot of soul and energy. And she loves to write. She shared her Hollywood experience with me while I was in Toronto.

Her mother is a former government minister and president of the Royal Ontario Museum and current Dean at one of Toronto’s biggest universities– and one of my dearest friends with whom I have a shared a lot of experiences with.

We began speaking about stories— and in particular, one that sparked her interest— that I had written about on this very blog called “Freedom or Death on Holocaust Remembrance Day” about the Greek heroes in the Auschwitz battalions who refused to do the work that their Nazi captors had assigned them.

She was impressed with their humanism and their dedication to preserving what little humanity these poor souls had left inside of them.

She asked if she could write a treatment, and work with me to develop a script… Her mother called a few days later— one of the most prominent and connected Canadian women I know, and explained to me that although it was her daughter we were talking about— she wanted me to handle this with the utmost professionalism and above all, she wanted her daughter to grow and learn from this experience. She encouraged me to be “hard” on her during this learning and growing process.

She also told me that if this were to develop into a short film— she would help raise the money and add her own, as well. (She raised more than $40 million when she worked at Toronto’s biggest museum, so what’s a paltry $100k for a short film?)

Fast forward to conversations with a major production company, a potential director, a researcher at Auschwitz that I randomly found– on Facebook— a certain electricity across the Skype connection with everyone I spoke… and the result?

One of the most productive and creative days I’ve ever had— not to mention the birth of my next project— all in a single day, and out of such darkness.

Out of the darkness of my past few weeks was such a bright light.

It’s there, you just have to look for it in other places than you might have previously been looking for it. The light is there.