I have decided to write a workbook in support of the power of the double circle.  This is quite an undertaking and do not have the immediate energy for it but I will find.  To begin with I need to interview people who are either correctional officers or have direct knowledge of the correctional officers work.  Interviews will not be structured but open-ended.  I would like to start with a few assistant wardens and hopefully work my way through Capt.'s lieutenants sergeants and officers.

The double circle group is officially begun.  For the time being I will handle the blog and the meetings and  sales through my own personal efforts.  this will keep things within the bottom-up philosophy and also save a lot of money.  I have been worn promoters  cost tons of money.  So the plan is as follows:

 1.  distribute up to 400 remaining books to people who will contact other people.

 2.  I gave books to people as the Queen of Peace church who seem responsive and I will continue to work on that prospect

3.  will find a way to get books to the correctional officers in the hopes that they will attend a meeting at Alachua Presbyterian Church or set up a meeting in their area.

 4. I hope to get a chance to meet with the staff at UCI.

5.  I have been informed that there is a Catholic medical society  in Gainesville I might be interested in meeting with.

6.  I plan on taking the book to Meridian as well as physicians recovery network.

I am getting very excited about what is happening.  Just talking to people reading things causes a falling together sometimes it feels creative but it is really no more creative than doing a jigsaw puzzle.  But the pieces are falling in place.  I had the audacity to ask the readers of this book to put flesh on it for the second edition. So I will include this note with the first edition copies.

Dear Reader;

This is hopefully an interactive book.  When you read it you will find mistakes and that is okay.  I will check those and correct them. The joy of self-publishing is that I can release a second edition when your stuff comes in. You can choose to be a coauthor, a nudge, or an anonymous contributor.

This is an interactive book and I hope to come out with a second edition soon.  It will depend on your input and comments and criticisms that I hope flow in very soon.  So after you read something just send me an email and tell me what you think.  In bottom-up processing we are all at the bottom working our way toward the top.  When something gels or meshes several people feel it in the same manner; and as a result of this something new and worthwhile comes about.

This is a very skeletal book and I hope you will put the flesh on it

Love

Phil

Today I gave books entitiled The Power of the Double Circle to a number of friends hoping to get a response that will get the ball rolling

Talking to several folks after the meeting this morning I realized that I have not made clear how this double circle group could help people. But this was in the context of a group meeting.  I have been purposely vague because I am trying to discover bottom-up processing in my midst and trying at the same time not to monkey with it.  If I have an exacting plan I fear that it will interfere with what will naturally evolve from the bottom-up processing.

However I could do more than I have so far to clarify something about my hopes:

1.  I hope the double circle will help people find a way to become more resilient in their interactions with people who are down in the mouth and willfully or woefully uninformed.  Those who have many years of sobriety can be very judgmental at times.

2.  My belief is that there is a treasure amongst longtime AA folks of positive input for those struggling with addiction.  I am trying to find out if there is a way to tap it. 

3.  So this process of the double circle could help both sponsors and sponsees.

4.  Correctional officers can benefit a great deal from contact with people with long-term sobriety within the program of AA.  We are often so caught up in her anonymity that we do not reach out where it is possible and hopeful to do so. 

So in general the double circle group is an instrument which can be used in the four arenas listed above.  Also if I get some help with the issues above I can come up with a second edition of this book which would be far more helpful than what we see in the one right now.  It is quite skeletal and badly written but it is the best I can do with the time.  I would love to have 20 or 30 co-authors. There is more but it will hold

I realize that I really just a little frightened about the prospects of the double circle group coming to fruition.  I realize I have to develop groups in more than one place in several different disciplines in order to reach the tipping point that Malcolm Gladwell describes in his book by that name.  Our first important meeting will be on the 30th of this month when we go to a celebration honoring officers in the Department of Corrections.  I hope to talk with  Warden Andrews and the Florida legislator Van Zandt as well as others about beginning groups sessions in order to help correctional officers gained more confidence in their work.

We are still waiting for the copy of our book coming from a local printer Alta systems but it should be here within a few days.

Marketing the Power of the Double Circle

 I attended a very interesting talk by Peggy McDonnell about marketing books.  The gist of it is  marketing must be done by  oneself if it is to be done at all.  This means frequent presentations and whatever book fairs can be attended as well as setting up interviews that can be published in papers and other journals.  It is an exhausting process.  But I think it is well worth it.  I look at my book and the double circle group as one who is made finally a  bat that can hit the ball.  I do not have to be a good hitter but I do have to provide a bat that other people can  hit with.  So on I will be hoping to hire Sharon Julian to help me get started with the website and to improve my Facebook page so that it is available to the public.   

Medical update

 My cystoscope exam  on Friday revealed no cancer.  So that is a good thing and the treatment was successful for the  time being.    I will get another cystoscope exam and about six months.    Meanwhile it looks as though Stephen Langer's probiotic will have to be administered by  enema. I am attacking this diabetes problem from the standpoint that my diabetes is due to bad bacteria in my colon.  another medical issue is about the worry of developing dementia.  I have been taking a Singular  for the past two months and my Peak score has not dropped any. I take a series of six brief examinations of my cognitive function on Peak each morning.  If you are interested in this you can look it up under Peak.com.  I recommend that everyone in the family take omega oil and attempt to get the brand that gives you the most EPA DHA. The Oceans Blue appear to have the highest  EPA/DHA. 

    Reading

 I am trying to read 15 Dogs because it is a selection of my bookclub: I find it totally ridiculous but I will try and finish it.   I found the Light Between Oceans to be contrived by an author who needed to write a story.  Then I read a book by a neurosurgeon called Proof of Heaven  which is equally contrived and almost total bullshit.   It is supposed to be a journey into the afterlife  but it fails miserably because I have talked to four people in detail about their experience of cessation of vitals

and Dr. Eben Alexander's story did not ring true  for me.  The only book that I have read in February that  truly made sense  is  the End of Average by Todd Rose which is subtitled how we succeed in a world that values sameness.