Jack Kairos (JestJack)
I'm Jack Kairos, also known as JestJack. I write stories, essays, and poetry - mostly trying to make sense of things.
I spent over a decade as a chef, and now I work as a CNC router operator. Both jobs are about precision and knowing your materials. That perspective shows up in my writing.
Here you'll find personal reflections, essays on society, fiction, and poetry.
Why the name JestJack?
It started out as Hayokah (phonetic, alternate spelling of Heyoka) which is a Sacred Clown role in Lakota/Dakota culture - the idea is that the Heyoka's role was to behave in a manner opposite and contrarian to the general sentiments of the tribe, which served to moderate behavior. Imagine everyone is fired up and angry about something, feeding off each other's emotions, and then the Heyoka comes skipping through the group whistling a happy tune and laughing. You see this and it helps you calm down and get a little perspective.
After some time I decided to change it out of respect for the Sioux since I am not myself Native American (half of my family is though) nor Heyoka.
One of my favorite musicals is this old one called The Court Jester with Danny Kaye and Angela Lansbury. Danny Kaye's character is tasked with protecting the infant king from the usurper, but due to an unexpected encounter ends up assuming the identity of the usurper's new Court Jester, Giacomo - who is actually an assassin in disguise. So Danny Kaye has to pretend to be a Jester who is actually an assassin, juggling all these roles while also trying to protect the infant true King. I like the idea of a man finding himself playing entertainer and villain very awkwardly while actually being a good guy.
But Giacomo wasn't available on Twitch, so I named myself Jackamow (phonetic spelling of Giacomo). After a while I got tired of people pronouncing it "Jack-a-mow" instead of "Jack-a-moe."
After some soul searching I settled on JestJack - a play on Jester, Jest, Just, and Jack (not my real name). I always liked the line in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where Gag Halfrunt describes Zaphod Beeblebrox: "Vell, Zaphod's just zis guy, you know?" Zaphod has this huge ego and Gag Halfrunt is his brain-care specialist.
So I'm Jest zis guy, you know?