I have known Jean Dansereau for over fifty years. We met in the early seventies in English Montreal. We came together over the written word; books, comics, historical tomes true crime and adventure novels, discussing them endlessly while our cohorts rolled their eyes indulgently. We graduated to serious literature and philosophy and as teenagers do, we thought we knew it all. Jean embarked upon the first of what would be his life’s work - healthy solutions. He secretly enrolled in Tae Kwon Do and applied the art to an eventual black belt. A few years later we cheered as he sparred onstage at the Montreal Forum to the stadium crowd’s delight. Some years went by. I moved through rock n roll without much impact into film and television while my friend Jean continued to expand his knowledge base into all kinds of health-related fields which were mostly unheard of and rather mysterious in the eighties. Around mid decade I went to Boston for a visit and found him in residence at the Kushi Institute of Macrobiotics, at that time an almost unknown field in the world of health in North America. He had become a much more serious man. Later, after he returned to Montreal and I to my new home in Toronto we saw each other several times a year and spoke on the phone and it dawned on me that he seemed to actually know what he was talking about. Like most, I had been somewhat sceptical initially. The Kushi Institute was a little off the beaten track for a punk rocker. But today, I realize that was the beginning of a new relationship with my friend, Jean. My views about regular medicine have always been dubious at best, I have never had a family doctor nor have I cultivated a healthy lifestyle; I smoked, drank and was a little bit of a foodie. But over the years I had a secret advantage in a friend who seemed to know more about my health than I did and from across the continent. It became something of a joke among certain friends that I had a western wizard of health at my call and some had me pumping him for advice on their particular ailments from time to time. I could go on but one particular episode stands out. There was a woman named Rose. Five years previously, she began experiencing back pains and since had been unable to dance properly despite the efforts of various doctors and consultants in both England and Canada. I told her about my friend Jean in Edmonton and although she was interested, after five years of chronic pain and failure from the medical community, she tended not to get her hopes up. Apparently, she had already went the alternative health route and had discovered these solutions before, which had done nothing for her. So that night I called Jean, “she’s been there…done that…no avail.” Jean paused for 15 seconds then responded in a somewhat cinematic announcement- “This calls for some Chinese herbs!!!” I got them to Rose on a Thursday night and arranged to see her at work the next Monday afternoon. “Your friend is a genius!” she proclaimed. The Chinese herbs were the magic potion. Jean Dansereau has always endeavored and mostly succeeded in making my health better even when I was not as cooperative as I might have been. Even today when my days upon this earth are numbered, Jean has succeeded in making this end time better for me. At this point I feel honored to be his friend and lucky to have been his patient.