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.

Lorenzo D. Leonard is a graduate of Jamestown University in Jamestown, N.D., where he studied accounting and sociology with a minor in philosophy. He's spent the ensuing years as Chief Concierge at a premiere Seattle shopping center. He lives in Seattle with his wife of three decades.