Lorenzo D Leonard – författare

As a series of essays, At First Glance examines how a system of living that lacks a dedicated curriculum to educate individuals about their inherent credibility limits one''s options for developing self-perception. Unaware of their own inner credibility, individuals tend to use outside experiences to define themselves. Without an appreciation of one''s inner character, an individual cannot apply their reliable internal influence when processing experiences in life. They will be unable to develop a moral blueprint that would lead them to honor the inherent qualities with which they were born, and instead their self-perception is inflated or deflated based on external experiences. As a result, they will solely pursue credibility and relevance based on external status and material wealth instead of goodness and honor.

At First Glance explores how this lack of a moral blueprint, this moral impoverishment, results in the emergence of a will to survive ideology that compels individuals to achieve power, authority, and superiority over others using skills such as deception, inequity, and corruption. This ideology necessitates benefiting from economic, gender, racial, ethnic, religious, political, and educational inequalities to sustain positive experiences, a race for credibility and relevance that can be ruthless and cruel.

At First Glance proposes that the way to withdraw from the travesty of humanity devouring itself is to develop a will to live ideology, which recognizes and honors innate attributes that embody substantive character. This ideology generates a genuine credibility and relevance that surpasses any need to diminish human life in order to succeed.

Because life is dominated by external and material value, the traditional means to satisfy this basic human instinct are simply not enough to fulfill the internal need to feel relevant and credible. Satisfying this basic instinct will also require extending a great effort to cripple or destroy the credibility, relevance, and value of another person or group. The competition to climb the ladder of success is quite crowded, and inequities and inequalities are formed favoring one class, race, ethnicity, religion, and gender over another.

Though the achievement is distorted, credibility and relevance easily translate into power and influence. The individual or group unable to achieve an equivalent experience will find only one option available to process the disappointment; experience becomes the lone material for developing a self-perception. With this being the only option, self-perception will primarily reflect deflated information. By educating to the merits of character, the individual gains genuine and stable material to develop self-perception and establishes authentic credibility and relevance that does not have to be proven. Traits such as integrity, vulnerability, and transparency come to have real meaning and purpose, rather than mere expression.

Trust the Confession is an examination of the true causes of our vast societal ills and a frank discussion of what can be done to resolve them. The chief cause of our societal downfall is a system of living that 1) has neglected and continues to neglect to educate toward the development of character and practice the qualities expressive of substantive character and 2) favors the achievement of personal meaning and purpose through external sources and promotes power, authority, and prominence as sustainable means to attain legitimacy. This system of living produces the symptoms for which our nation has suffered consistently since its inception: racism, injustice, socioeconomic inequality, discrimination, gender inequality, mass gun violence, hatred,

political division, and more.

Throughout the book, Mr. Leonard examines the various symptoms and issues surrounding this system of living-touching on several hot-button issues with respect. The author draws the reader to the conclusion that the only solution with any long-term viability begins with educating the populace toward the development, value, and practice of substantive character. This training will elevate who a person is intrinsically to an equivalent level of importance with what they are externally and possess materially. A much-needed treatise on the state of our nation, Trust the Confession will encourage every reader to examine their understanding of the world in which we live, challenge their own perspectives with thoughtful consideration, and conduct an honest

appraisal of what they can do to make our world a better place to live for everyone.