bonjour/hi

I am Jean-Daniel (zhawn-danyell), like John Daniel, but en français.

I live in Montréal, Québec, Canada. I am a pastor and a playwright.

Those are independent, but interrelated. They are both ways of telling stories to tell truths bigger than the story itself, ways of exploring and expressing empathy, ways of building communities that last into the future on the foundation of ancient traditions. Less nobly, both are a lot of fun, most of the time.

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Project Midlife Crisis
Project Midlife Crisis

Get vaccinated. Wear seatbelts and helmets and life jackets. Eat vegetables. Don’t smoke. That all simultaneously matters and guarantees nothing.

Yet I felt the midlife crisis welling up inside me on my birthday. According to my life insurance company, I am not quite half-way done. I would be past that for the average Canadian man, but a combination of physical activity and being, as many have called me, “boring,” slightly stack my odds to live longer.

Swimming above water
Swimming above water

Water has been a paradoxical sensory space for me my whole life. I was raised in a water-loving family, near a beach, with grandparents with a lake house, with a mother who self-identified as a fish, preferring water over land.

This Autism Awareness Month, be aware of me?
This Autism Awareness Month, be aware of me?

Autistic people are actually often more different from one another than allistic (nonautistic) people. It is an imprecise label still that means “not like most of you” more than a consistent idea of what we are all like. Just that the majority of people think our brains do things wrong. Or if they are more empathetic, that our brains do things in statistically anomalous ways.

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L'automne s'en vient
The dog park is downright spooky and magical if I work too late
This precious friend of mine is used to a routine on work-from-home days that I eat lunch at noon and then I go to the backyard and play fetch with her. I got a bit hyperfocused until at 12:30, I heard whimpers as if she were dying in the backyard. A
I would like to report, as clearly many people already knew but hithertofore I had not known, that Collingwood, Ontario, is also charming af.
Stratford, Ontario, is very cute. Apparently a lot of people already knew that, but it was new to me.
My job requires me to travel all over Canada, and not just to the major metro areas. Before this job, I worked for about a decade in McGill University student services. So most places in Canada were intellectually introduced to me through the opinion
Look, I don't want to be lured into a place to be murdered, but if you want to do that to me, this sign is how.
I solemnly commit to stop sharing scenery photos for at least 12 hours because it got dark.
Okay, okay, another small Ontario city is admittedly adorable.
Hanging a Shakespeare quote over the entrance to your law firm is classy, but putting this one up is pure confidence.
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Theatre and Comedy

My Original Fringe Festival Show

Performed at Regina, Charlottetown, and Vancouver Fringe Festivals.
Next venues and dates to be announced!

Learn more about the show and read reviews