From the Heart

By Ron Kearse

This is a collection of blog posts Ron has written for a couple of blog sites he has maintained over the last fifteen years. It also includes some of the guest posts from a recent Blog Tour and accompanied by photos taken from his travels. This collection of blog posts is written from the heart: charming, wise and deeply personal reflections of his experiences as a gay man and author. He has been wanting to put this collection together for some time. Ron finds blogging gives him a chance to express himself in ways other than the novels, short stories, and non-fiction for which he’s known. He has enjoyed writing all of them; hopefully, you’ll enjoy them too.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Feb 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781716232176

Ron Kearse

Ron Kearse lists travelling, photography, art, reading and history as his main sources of inspiration. An artist, broadcaster, actor and writer, Ron has a colourful and varied work resumé. Having lived a nomadic life, Ron has finally settled in Victoria, BC where he lives with his partner James Howard. Just Outside of Hope is the second installment in the Road Without End Trilogy, he has also published a photo book of Vancouver Street Art in the mid-1980s called Lost History.Photo of Ron Kearse by Neil Brock

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From the Heart

by Ron Kearse

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Copyright

Copyright © 2020 by Ron Kearse

ISBN 978-1-716-23217-6

Second Ebook Version: 2021

Lulu.com for

Filidh Publishing

www.filidhbooks.com

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the publisher's express written permission except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

The majority of blog posts were originally published at the former  https://ronkearse.com/blogs/

Summer Blog Tour guest posts are reproduced with permission.  See Appendix for listing.

All photographs are by Ron Kearse, except for the back cover photo by Steven Foster.

Originally published in print as Ex Animo – a Collection of Blogs and Photographs

Cover design by Danny Weeds.

Why This?

I write fiction based on real life, and in my world, I’m a scribe to the times and events happening around me. What I’m writing is a record about points in time. The characters are all amalgams of various people I’ve known, but the circumstances are very real.

I’ve been writing since I can remember, and over the years, I have had a couple of blog sites, which I only half-heartedly cared about. Sometimes I was really into writing blogs and posting them, while at other times, I would totally forget that I even had them. Which is unusual for someone like me who likes to share his opinions with others.

So how did this book come to be?

In the summer of 2019, a book tour was being planned for me for the summer of 2020. The second novel in my trilogy, Just Outside of Hope, had gone through its third printing, and I had a crackerjack marketer named Cassie Smith at the helm planning this tour.

The stops that were planned would be the cities that are featured in the trilogy. The readings were to take place during the Pride Week in each city. So, the summer schedule would have been beautifully laid out beginning with: Winnipeg Pride in May, Toronto’s in June, Victoria’s in July, Vancouver’s in August, and Calgary’s in September!

Then 2020 happened, and because of Covid 19, the book tour was cancelled.

But then, Cassie had the idea for a Summer Blog Tour. She made arrangements, through various blog sites for readers and writers, to feature me on their sites through the summer.

Every week I would be given a writing assignment from the various sites, such things as answer a series of questions or write a blog about any in a list of given topics, to what items do you have in your working space? It was fun and a great creative challenge! And it got me thinking about all of the other blogs I had written over the years.

I’ve been looking through these old blogs and reflecting on how these were written through various times in my life and how my life has changed so much in recent years. Some of my basic beliefs have not changed, although so much of my outlook has changed very much.

As I was reading them, a thought occurred to me. I talked with my publisher about it, and she agreed that it was a good idea to put together a collection of many of the blogs I have written. And accompanying these are photos I have taken over the years. All of these blogs are in random order and were written Ex Animo (From the Heart). I’ve undergone great change over these last few years, and these are written remnants of the life I’ve lived and new adventures with a new partner.

There will be many who will see this book and think, who cares? But the way I look at it is that as a composer writes a song, and as a painter or photographer create some amazing visuals, I like to try various styles of writing. Besides, it’s fun to show off some of the things I have thought, felt, and created. Thank you for reading.

Ron Kearse, December 2, 2020.

A Brilliant Quote

To despise the fact of ageing is not only to despise life, but to betray a pitiful ignorance of the nature of life. Youth is not a state to be preserved but a state to be transcended. Youth has strength, but it does not have skill, which, in the long run, is the most potent strength. Youth has speed, but it does not have efficiency, which, in the long run, is the only effective way of attaining goals. Youth is quick, but it is not deliberate, and deliberation is the only way to make correct decisions. Youth has energy and intelligence, but it does not have the judgment necessary to make the best use of that energy and intelligence. Measured judgment, in the end, is the only guarantor of intelligent behavior. Youth has the beauty of genetic endowment, but it does not have the beauty of real achievement. Youth has the glow of promise, but it does not have the radiance of accomplishment. Youth is a time of seeding and cultivation, but it is not a time of fruiting and harvest. Youth is a state of ignorance and innocence, but it is not a state of knowledge and wisdom. Youth is a state of emptiness awaiting fullness, a state of possibility awaiting actualization, a state of beginning awaiting transcendence.

Thomas Hanna

A New Year, Out with the Clutter

As the old year is now history, so must all of us move on with our lives. As the ripped wrapping, tangled ribbon and flattened old boxes go into the recycle bin like the ghosts of Christmas Done, so too comes the task of reaching into forgotten, dusty boxes to remove neglected old objects like the Spirits of Years Past.

My partner Steve and I live in a small condominium, although by modern standards, we probably live in a palace. After all, there are much smaller condos in this city in which people inhabit, but I digress. Anyway, at 820 square feet, our apartment has become too small for our stuff…but that is only part of the problem.

The other part of the problem is we have allowed our stuff to accumulate, bringing in articles of furniture, clothing, and various other knick-knacks, appliances and general tomfoolery without getting rid of older stuff. We’ve packed things away in boxes and have left them to stack over the years without checking to see what’s in them. Well, I can tell you what’s in those boxes without even looking inside of them. A whole lot of shit we’ve long ago forgotten that we own, that’s what!

Now comes the task, and the courage, to go through a lot of that shit and either sell it, give it away, or both. This is going to be tough for me because much of the stuff I’ve kept in those boxes over the years, I convinced myself I was doing so for sentimental reasons. These are remnants of my youth, memories of parties, dances, romances, friends and debauchery…until I realized, of course, that I had forgotten about them anyway.

The item I’m starting with is my collection of vinyl records. They have been my prizes. I’ve owned most of them since I was in my twenties. I’ve cared for them, treated them like gold, kept the discs themselves in protective sleeves, and kept each album cover in a protective covering. They’re in mint condition, and most of the LP’s I have are now easily available on iTUNES. So, I don’t have the it’s-out-of-print excuse to