Whom Shall I Fear

By Ronald Giles

I can only hope that the perception of my readers is not that they were being forcefed some sort of social orientation that I adamantly proclaim to be true. I am merely fulfilled and excited in sharing with my reader the fascination of my imagination unleashed by my own thought and perception. I still feel small when standing beside an ocean or stand at the foot of some majestic mountain. There is absolutely nothing narcissistic about any perceived intellectual value of my material. With my thought I am like a kid who has Christmas every day and just can't wait until a session of show and tell at school. School being that outlet that provides a platform to adamantly present to the world, as they know it, a catharsis of grander and emotional joy one thinks will result in an elevated sense of elation in the people she will engage for years to come. The initial excitement of such sharing will, for many, carry over to be the impetus, of the great ones. Those who will entertain the world with the genius of their writing, the inspiration of their music. There are others that introduce the world to new and fascination dynamics because scientific discoveries, and their ability to collect available resources and ascertain profound ways in which to utilize those resource. The mind itself being the apex of such resource and intelligence. I am sure that my collection of thought is compilation from the stages of my life that resulted in untapped empirical knowledge and thought. I think I became truly infatuated with written expression at a very young age, during the time when the record company Motown was at its peak. The great Paul Anka wrote a lyric that sent me for a loop. He wrote that "memories are times that we barrow to use when we get to tomorrow." Where will the world be if discerning people stop sharing their thoughts…where will the world be if we all stop or refuse to share our emotional excitement and the gifts of joy that they have encountered. What a better way to do so in written expression!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098066598

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Whom Shall I Fear

Ronald Giles

Copyright © 2020 by Ronald Giles

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Perspective

Chapter 2: Culture

Chapter 3: Scripture

Chapter 4: Ebonics

Chapter 5: Thought and Opinion

Chapter 6

Chapter 7: Said in A Song

Chapter 8: Book Review

Chapter 9: Creative Speech

Chapter 10: About People

Chapter 11: Miscellaneous

Introduction

The fear of man (ourselves) is probably foremost of all our anxieties. The fear of speaking, of dying, and being can be summed up in the fear we have of one another. I remember the age-old adage We have found the enemy, and it is us. Many will avow in the Garden of Eden that the serpent was the culprit for the fall, and therefore, all the ills of humanity. The responsibility for mankind crossing the line into sin was Adam, mankind himself. As it stands now, we fear our leaders more than we trust them. Throughout our history, we are perpetually a step from disaster regarding the decisions that we make. Knowing this, you’d think we are gifted with enough intellect to seek out another source for acquisition of wisdom and knowledge necessary to make wise decisions. If evolution is true, we have but ourselves. No wonder our greatest fear is the fear we have for each other. We fear those who are of different cultures, we fear those who are of different mindsets, we fear those who are greater in stature (Goliath), and last but not least, we fear those of different color. In a society where free will is the order of the day, we feel free to disparage, pillory and put down, prejudice and deceit, hatred and acrimony that results in a perpetual state of war with those others, for lack of wisdom, we declare to be the enemy.

Growing up, my mom taught me of another type of fear: a reverent fear—fear that inspires obedience, not anxiety. The source of such a fear, however, is divine, not serpentine nor humanistic. The type of fear, that I had for my mother, was the reason for hurt and pain I experienced because I realized that I had done wrong and had breached the love connection between my mother and I; as a result, I suffered, knowing that I had distanced myself from her—someone that I loved! I had already established faith in her by way of my belief in her. I knew that all I had to do to mend the tear is show remorse, to understand that I had done wrong, and to approach her with a repented heart. Every time, Leanna M. Giles forgave me.

The notion to repent is result of divine enlightenment and revelation, given by what is assuredly a higher authority and power than that of any scientific equation or philosophical equivocation. My writings are a tribute to that divine authority that make, for us all, a way of escape concerning our misdeeds. I make my best attempts, regardless of the subject, to express the thought and realities of right and wrong. The distinction is a divine link of universal unity and understanding that lighted our paths. That this work was wrought of our Lord Jesus Christ. The feeling of anointment, and that the eyes of my understanding being enlightened, that I might know what is the hope of his calling. Of course, first giving honor to God, I also present my expressions in honor of my mom, Leanna M. Giles, who, along with my younger brother Chuck, await the rest of the family, Rick, Bonnie, and I in that eternal resting place. To God be the glory!

Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Perspective

Ipoint out and emphasize our everyday interactions with one another. I question on many occasions the wholesomeness and sincerity of how we project ourselves; not only that, I consider our perceptions of one another. In other words, are we even capable of embarking on the absolutes? How can we ever be sure that we have found solution in totality to anything…can we ever know it all? Does a serial killer really know what his own possession is when they murder people that they don’t even know? Can we know from start to finish those things that cause us to do such things, and can we expect to resolve such difficulties with humanity? One thing for sure, once such a murderous possession lessens its hold, and we realize what we have done, we have millions of excuses available to us to proclaim our innocence; all seemingly in accordance with the culture in which we live, and somehow seem to give us the notion that we can be relieved of the atrocities we have committed—self-condemnation is one the most difficult things we have to do, regardless of the smallness of the matter. When it comes to self-condemnation, we are extremely oscitant. * In the Garden of Eden, mankind has made excuse for his self-propitiated misdoings, over the decades such proclivity has gotten exponentially more egregious—the debt and spirit of such self-denial continues to propel humanity toward self-destruction!

A great many have the notion that perspective is truth. They believe that truth has many variations; if any word given to human expression deserves to be elevated above human description, in regards to absoluteness, it is truth; there are few others, perspective is certainly not one of them. Perspective is fraught with all the elements of humanistic reasoning—the first thing we think when we use or hear the word is that someone else may have another perspective or may have seen things from a totally different angle or viewpoint. The truth is void of human perspective, it is not subject to such exposure nor human rationalization. To make the claim that this is my truth merely because of what you want to believe, and because of your perspective concerning things you have seen or witnessed, is a bit arrogant! There is scripture that declares Thy Word is Truth, certainly one can’t discern that thy meant me or them. For your perspective to be valid, it must be in alignment with the actual truth.

In my daily accumulation of thought, and the activities in which I engage and elicit such thought, to include my conversations, almost always result in me challenging either my own perspective and what I believe to be truth. I then most certainly do the same in my evaluations given the perspective of others. It is just like fine dining for me when people render to me their concept of what perspective really is. They probably don’t realize how tantalizing such food for thought is for me. For instance, a friend said to me that his perspective is his truth. If he knows me at all, he is conscious of the fact, that for me, he has just opened a dynamic of thought and excitement that rivals the jubilation of someone who has just booked a cruise to the Bahamas. The probability of drawing closer to the truth is like for me drawing closer to a new birth concerning my existence and purpose.

Speak of verity, the definitions of perspective are many, either one has any reference to truth or absoluteness. Let me point out that to relegate truth only to our perspective, things we see, feel and believe in, is to fall extremely short in our ability for cognitive thinking and belief, which is par-for-the course because it is impossible for humanity to conceive truth in its totality—so in reality our search for truth itself become a matter of belief in idiomatic concept, cognition and imaginative idealism. Now therefore, in the process we must include, and be aware of the concept of faith.

I spoke with a former co-worker and ask him merely to share with me his expression on perspective. He said that as kid he remembers that to teach him of what perspective is, his teacher showed him a picture of railroad tracks, which gave the view of looking far down the tracks. I have no doubt as to the insinuation of such teaching. I also got the same type of pictorial presentation from my grade school instructors. I immediately discerned that what the instructor was trying to impress upon me, even at a very young age, is that there is much more to reality than meets the eye. To walk further down the tracks is to open up to oneself a whole new reality. That new reality being the knowledge that life is dynamic, that life becomes bigger and bigger with forward movement. At the same time that which you have left behind seems to become smaller and smaller. In other words, the only way to familiarize yourself to what might be is to proceed forward into the future. If you don’t, the future will always be a vision of what might be, filled with assumption and probability and perception. To realize that the width of the track, in reality, is actually as wide regardless of the illusion distance. We are now assured that regardless of how far we go, when we look up there will always be an illusion of distance. Such thing, as far as I am concerned, this is not illusion, it is reality in respect to the limitations of mankind, regardless of how much knowledge we are able to obtain. Perspective is to understand that there are truths for which we have no comprehension, and therefore must except by way of faith. This is where it gets complicated because the faith spoken of here simply has to be faith in something that we believe to be immutable, immortal, and incomprehensible.

My attempts to pinpoint the most conclusive aspect and definition of perspective is virtually like trying to conclude that the totality of the human existence can be found in our DNA—tracking the DNA of mankind is like looking down the track, the closer we believe we are coming to an end, the further away we seem to be; we come across overwhelming realities that we had not even begin to contemplate. Reality so vast and intricate, it doesn’t bring us closer to absolute, but seems to take us further away. The evolutionary process/idiom I mention because, such perspective has merit and is so eloquently presented, the thought of its reality or truth is just as good as any other perspective. If you chose the evolutionary process over creation and it is true, you are eternally locked into life as we know it now, relying of the evolution process somehow deems it is necessary, because of our destructive ways, to make corrections and turn us back into monkeys and start the process all over again. If by faith you chose Creation, the fruition of that faith will manifest itself in transitioning us into an eternal life of glory and joy.

Think about it for a minute, all throughout your existence how many times you’ve made mistakes that meant absolutely nothing? The very fact that we refer to misdeeds as mistakes bares the insinuation of consequence, yet you choose evolution over creation and over a creator with the assumption you can merely put that mistake aside, make another choice, and deem this whole activity inconsequential.

One can search and search for different angles, and use different scientific equation and angles to enhance our understanding of perceived truth, or what we call perception, however, we often fail to realize that our understanding and discernment are often attached to our mind-set, beliefs and disbeliefs at the time of cognition, or lack thereof. Any person may see a smiling person as someone attempting to beguile by using the smile as a device for deception. Old school lyrics to a song performed by the Temptations insinuate that smiling faces tell lies. Our thoughts and our thinking like a man trying to go through a gantlet with hostiles waiting there on both sides with all sorts of weapons. The weapons (whether good are bad) that I speak of, having to do with how we formulate opinions and our perceptions are our own prejudices that we allow to take so deep of root that become rotten and cancerous, let’s say a gantlet of our own proclivity for misunderstanding.

The peculiarity concerning the gantlet is that the gantlet is of our own creation. We most definitely chose to pillory and disparage using the excuse that others had it coming. So by way of one of the most destructive devices available, we chart our course. That devices are arrogance, deceit and self-exhortation that insist to oneself that we are right even when we are wrong, and is the stimulus of perspective deluge of thought that all experiences are the result of nothingness, that things and events just happen. There is one equation that will never change regardless of time, and that equation is Nothing from nothing leaves nothing meaning that life just did not happen. It is no more possible for humanity to just suddenly appear than it would be for the Mona Lisa to have painted itself.

How can a man be for certain that hatred, color, ignorance, egotism, religion and such, has not tainted our ability to extrapolate the truth from any situation or circumstance—we can’t. Here is what we do: we subtlety and divisively seek out and recruit others that already are vulnerable to the hatred and divisiveness that we possess—quite often doing these things without shame, and giving no quarters because we become self-deceived…" We allow these things to assail and shroud our thinking, and allow these things preeminence to become the controlling devices in our lives, to include the way we see and interpret situations and circumstances which confront us daily. I have an aunt who is extremely committed to the Democratic Party—there is just no telling her that people are people and that we all have the proclivity to cheat—she refuses to believe that I don’t do politics the way she does politics. I must reiterate to her over and over again that I am not a Republican either, she refuses to believe this.

We have gotten to the point that our minds have been conditioned, concerning the thing for which we believe, and our responses are rehearsed to the point of spontaneity. Blacks that feel that the social process has let them down spontaneously riot. Whites feel that Blacks have crossed the, lynch line. These types of responses are second nature—something we do without thinking, and has scared us to the point that we believe to be more than enough justification to punish, pillory and hate. It really takes special being, after a son has been gunned down in the street, we forgive (they know not what they do)—a great many don’t! It’s called forgiveness, and is strictly asinine to those who lack understanding of how powerful a tool we have been granted.

When we speak of angles and perceptions that allow us to see the same things differently, we are not just speaking of the eye as the only receptacle. The heart provides a stimulus that will cause the feeling of both joy and pain throughout the body on different occasions.

So we realize that we have certain biological tools that we apply in given situations, so what it really comes down to it is the application of the right tools. So now we also realize that we have to apply certain technique in the application of those tools. An aircraft mechanic can have the right tools and still blow the whole job because he failed to use the proper amount of (force) assigned torque. At times we realize such a thing with our mechanical devices and machines, but act as if we lack any kind of knowledge, or simply pay no regard to such a thing as force or torque when we deal with one another. Without all these things we would be able perhaps to see an accident and all come to the same conclusion. There seems, however, a tendency in us all to be exclusive. I’ve been engaged in many conversations where I have made a statement, and even though the other person believes what you say to be true, they will express that truth exclusive to their own perspective, the things that they believe to be more important concerning the thought. I have many times given directions, only to have someone gives another set of directions. We then argue about who’s directions are the best, never stopping to ask the receiver what is their preference. Quite possibly the receiver wants to avoid downtown even though it is the shortest way. The person that gave the downtown directions will many times believe both the receiver and the giver of the other direction to be mad…just are not objective enough to envision others may have different priorities. Saving gas and seeing the sites may be the furthest thing from the traveler’s mind.

We all have conditioned our minds to a point where we no longer have to think about the applicability of our stored-up beliefs and proclivities. Because we so strongly believe in in the things that we have internalized, the evocation of thought or actions and the formulation of opinions become spontaneous—without thought or something we refer to as second nature. Those who see an accident or evaluate situations, even if seen from the same angle, may give different accounts. Initiation of the before mentioned internal fuses ignite external operation that many times are out of control. Mr. Pavlov performed a conditioning experiment with a dog that we can liken to our own experience with how we also allow ourselves to be conditioned. He rang a bell and brought the dog food for which the dog would salivate. After some time, he stopped bringing the food, but the dog salivated anyway because it was conditioned. So, it is with the human species that has been conditioned. Young men in this country are, let’s face it, conditioned to preserve themselves at all cost, we often lay this type of conditioning to the ghetto experience, but the whole country right down to the internal functions of the White House and our government are subject to such deficiency, thus the expression dog-eat-dog come to mind.

I think I would be remiss, when speaking of perspective, I not mention scripture. A great many believe that in the Gospels, Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John, there is a great deal of variance in what has been written; there are a great many opponents to the authenticity of scripture. Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, in their accounts, certainly do have their own uniqueness that