Jonathan Light

Writer. Director. Producer.

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Post-Chemo #2

Chemo was last Thursday, and somehow, I’m really doing fine. The weekend was a bit of a struggle, but it was a busy family weekend so I probably pushed a little harder than I would have.

I feel weak and a little queasy all the time, but for the most part I’ve been very lucky. If I felt like this just because I was sick, nobody would care since it would probably be gone in a few days.  But if this is the worst it gets for the next six months, I’ll be very happy.

Although there were a few strands of hair on my pillow…………..[ominous music]. Rachel is dreading that part of it, since she only loves me for my hair, but I’ll actually feel a bit cheated if I don’t get to see what I’d look like completely bald.

Since I won’t be able to climb…

Might as well make room for the next generation.

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Not a cancer blog

This is NOT a cancer blog. I do not set out to motivate everyone with my positive attitude or any perceived fortitude in the face of this thing – although if that is a byproduct of my writing, I’d be very happy.

And please don’t take that as a criticism of any other kinds of writing from people going through this…  I only submit this disclaimer because I don’t think anything I write could be as motivational or inspiring as some other essays and blogs I’ve read. So if you want to be inspired by real strength in the face of adversity, please go here.  Or especially here…this is an essay by an old high school friend whose story is everything all at once. (Ed. – it is no longer available, because this one was written by Elisabeth Finch, who was – in 2022 – found to have been faking her cancer. Just wild. But she’s still such a good writer…

For my purposes, I figured that since my website was already up and running, it would be a good, non-Facebook place to post updates on things as they progress during my treatment – a place where friends, family and weird stalkers with a disturbing interest in strangers’ chemotherapy treatments can check in and get updates.

Mostly, though, I’m doing this so I don’t have to write the same email seven hundred and forty-eight times. I mean, seriously. There are a LOT of you. When did I get so many friends? I’m so confused.

So please visit here whenever you’d like for updates and the occasional Deep Thought during those times when I’m hopped up on Percocet. BUT please don’t take this to mean that I don’t want you to call, write and/or visit. I have loved hearing from everyone and it really, really helps. As I’ve said to many people, cancer is a GREAT opportunity to really connect with people in ones life, so might as well take advantage of it.

And though you will hear this from me a lot, I can’t help but repeat it over and over: thank you all so, so very much. The outpouring of support and offers to help and exclamations of “what the hell did you have to go and LYMPHOMA for?” have been overwhelmingly touching, and I am so very grateful. So many people go through this type of thing without a fraction of the love I’ve felt over the last few weeks, and I am incredibly lucky to have all of you in my life.

Yes, even you, Stranger Who Found Me on LinkedIn because you need a videographer for your son’s bar mitzvah. (Also, sorry, I don’t do them.)

SO…the update: My second chemo treatment is tomorrow (Thursday) and I fully expect hair to start showing up on my pillow within the next week. Although – who knows? The thing about chemotherapy is everyone is different, and no one can tell you what will happen.

My doctor – who is awesome – remains very confident that I’ll have a relatively OK time with this, and the bottom line is that my Hodgkins symptoms (which were pretty debilitating) have completely subsided after just one treatment, which is the most important thing. So if I’m lucky, the next six months will consist of mostly normal days punctuated by a few days of feeling slightly rundown after chemo every two weeks. Piece of cake, I hope.

And that’s the latest. I’ve been feeling OK so far, and I’m prepared for whatever may happen in the coming months. I’m sticking to the mantra I’ve always had, which is there is literally nothing in life that is so bad that it can’t be made worse by something else. This helps me keep perspective, which in turn has made room in my brain for some awesomely dark cancer jokes.

Stay tuned for further updates…

Producing things with cameras and stuff

My 2¢:

If you want to make things that have either audio and/or visual components, and you want these things to be good and quality and professional looking, and if you want the process of creating said audio/visual things to be fun and creative and lively and successful, then for the LOVE of GOD treat your crew right.

And if you don’t have a crew, then get one.  Nothing you do will be as good as it would be if you bring in a crew.  And nothing will be more fun and rewarding than being on a set – no matter how small – and creating something with a crew of people who like you and (for the most part) trust you.  But this will only happen if you respect them and put their happiness on a high position of importance on your importance flowchart.

The Fox and the Dog

The Quick Brown Fox jumped over the Lazy Dog.

He didn’t really realize he was fast, or even brown for that matter. And if you were to ask the dog, he would be quite offended if you were to call him lazy. Even though he was.

He was getting quite sick of it, actually – this stupid fox, who was quite quick (and brown) always jumping over him. His pathetic attempts to thwart the Quick Brown Fox’s repeated jumps over him were compromised, however, on account of his laziness. Continue reading

Newly Discovered Myth: Arkamedin

Arkamedin and the Triangle of Love is a little-known* Greek myth.  It’s one of my favorites, but is often overlooked. I publish it here in its entirety.

Arkamedin was a half-man, half god –  born out of a chance encounter between Zeus and a citizen of Greece, a mortal named Antiolitus who worked as a prostitute to the gods.  Usually, before having their way with her, the gods would make Antiolitus infertile for up to 20 minutes, to make it impossible for an illegitimate child to be born.  One night, however, Zeus was incredibly inebriated, and he forgot to cast the spell before calling on Antiolitus for a rendezvous.  The result of their union was Arkamedin.  As soon as Zeus learned of his child, he banished Antiolitus to Hades, and sent Arkamedin to live with an old couple in a hut in the woods.  Arkamedin grew up, oblivious of his true parentage, knowing only the quiet old man who provided ample food and water.

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Article: Yahoo! Finance Sample

This article originally appeared on the Daily Ticker site of Yahoo! Finance in 2009.

WALL ST. DOING LESS AND LESS, SAYS JOHN CASSIDY

According to journalist and author John Cassidy, Wall Street banks are supposed to act “like a power utility… Except they provide money rather than power.”

But what happens when the power utility, instead of focusing on how best to manage and distribute power, decides to focus on using customer funds to make a quick buck?

The answer, as Cassidy explains in his recent New Yorker article, is a financial system pushed to the brink of collapse.

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He’s Dead, Jim

When we die, we are sent to a pretty bleak world in which there are horribly disfigured Winged Harpies, and we have to tell them how wonderful it was to live. If we lie, or if we have nothing to tell them about what we did to try to live with passion and love, then they keep us there for eternity. But if we tell them how beautiful the world was for us, and describe the joys and excitement we felt while living, then they will show us a door that will release our atoms back into the world so we can become one with nature again.

At least that’s how Phillip Pullman sees it in his wonderful, magical trilogy His Dark Materials. Which I’ve just finished reading for the third time.  Continue reading

“A Dream Fulfilled” Announced

I’m officially starting production on a documentary about my father’s life in the Philadelphia Orchestra – “A Dream Fulfilled.” At 55 years and counting, he’s the longest tenured member of the Orchestra. See a description and trailer for the film here

https://jonathanlight.com/a-dream-fulfilled/

Everyone Deserves a Second Chance

Not wanting to live his life as a sellout, Boba Fett eventually decided to leave bounty hunting and pursue his filmmaking dreams.

 

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Identity

Who we are is what we do. Isn’t it?

This is a struggle for a lot of people, it seems – is one defined by the work one does and the job one holds? Most people would probably say no, but I’m inclined to say sort of.  Continue reading

Un-knowledge

The great epidemic of our time. I’m coining this phrase to describe the ridiculous thoughts that spew from the stewing brain matter of some of our elected officials: evolution is “just a theory,” the government is unconstitutional, CO2 is good for you, guns make you safer, prayer works, gay people are evil,  etc, etc…  Continue reading

RIP Our Fish

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Clifton Phifer Lee, a Betta fish from New York City, passed peacefully on the floor of his bowl on October 20th, 2014. He was at least several weeks over three years old.

Born sometime in late summer 2011 at a Petco on 4th Avenue, Cliff was named for his parents’ hero at the time, Cliff Lee of the Philadelphia Phillies. Cliff the Fish watched closely whenever Cliff the Pitcher was on the mound, though he became as distraught as everyone when the Phillies started being terrible again.

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EXCLUSIVE: Jeff’s Diary

Some time after the end of the Iraq War, an Iraqi soldier fighting alongside American troops found a torn and tattered diary in an abandoned bunker.

Unable to read the English, he passed it on to his American counterparts, who delivered it to an Associate Press reporter. 

The surviving contents are reproduced here, unedited.

August 29th, 2002

Dear Diary,

I’ve gotten an acting job!  Only 3 weeks out of drama school, I meet this guy today and he hired me on the SPOT!.  I knew that acting would work out for me… everyone said I shouldn’t have quit the bathroom fixture thing and go to London. They said I was too old, they said acting is too hard and it’s only for attractive twenty-somethings…well HA!  Here I am, just finished my first summer intensive and I have a real job!

It looks great…I’ll be living away from home for a while, but that’s the life of an actor, isn’t it?  I’m really lucky to find such a great gig in the summer too.  The downside is I’m going to have to go to Iraq, but the contract is open-ended!  Everybody says I shouldn’t do it – they all said something about Iraq being dangerous and there might be a war or something – but I can’t let that hold me back.  I mean, what’s more dangerous than being an actor?

Continue reading

Marriage, In Sum

Rachel to Me: “Look, I voluntarily signed up to be dragged along for whatever mess you get yourself into, and vice versa. And that’s not a bad thing.”

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