Something good came  out of my blog experience yesterday.  I went to bed early and was able to go to sleep and throughout the night I continued to dream about riding around in the police patrol car and talking with the policeman in such a way that I think it might have helped him to slow down and give slack to some of his intensity.    Sometimes when I try to stay awake too late I go into a deep layer of sleep that lacks good dreams but last night was good dreaming and good dream work.

Slowing Things Down

     Something has come up which I need to report and  invite discussion . Yesterday, a young black man was shot to death while sitting in his car.  His killer was a white police officer.   But the striking thing to me was the rhythmic speed of the event.  On the one hand the officer  seemed  to be in fast forward while we could see that the young black man was shot was nearly dead already.   But the girlfriend sitting to the right of the victim was talking to the officer in slow measured tones.  It was as though she knew that the officer was not in control and was trying to bring him into focus and slow him down.  But the officer continued to point his weapon at the nearly dead victim though the officer was visibly shaking.  It was as if the officer was speeded up in his mind and was unable to slow himself down. But the girl in the passenger side of the car was trying very carefully, and, I think thoughtfully, to slow the officer down.  I suspect that the victim who was searching for his registration was speeded up as well but I did not see that firsthand.  The video will be shown over and over on television. So you might look at it, if you have the stomach for that sort of thing, and tell me what you conclusion you reach. It appears that there is a problem in the rhythm and speed of the event. I have talked to a few people who were puzzled to the extent that they wondered if there was something staged but it also seemed surreal.

     Baseball has a reputation for many people as being slow and dull; but in most cases both the pitcher and the batter are trying to slow themselves down so as to be able to focus cleanly on what they are doing.  If they allow themselves too much of the intensity of the moment they will not be able to focus and slow down.  You may notice the pitcher adjusting his cap repeatedly as well is fiddling with this necklace and adjusting his sleeves in his jersey and scraping his foot on the mound until occasional baseball watcher is pretty well bored by the process. But at this point the pitcher has slowed down enough to pitch effectively.   Then it is the batters routine to adjust and readjust his batting gloves with each swing and stare blindly at the bat for a moment before finally looking at the pitcher.  He may ask for time and step out of the batter's box only to step right back in.  Who knows what this is all about except people know baseball?  They know that the batter is also trying to slow himself down.

     Now, with help, we may come up with a scenario for officers in prisons or in the street to find ways that they can slow themselves down as well as slowing down the person they are engaging in an encounter and possible arrest.  I can think of no situation in which a speeding up of this process will improve the thinking and right action of either the officer or the person facing arrest.  

     And I also wonder about myself.  I am finding that I am spending a lot of attention to slowing myself down.  In the last few months I no longer listen to the sound on television but only to the picture.  The sound seems to be happening too fast; people are talking too fast and the scenes are often changing too fast.  I find myself in prayer trying to solve the problem through repetition of prayer.  I favor slow music most of the time. For over a year I return over and over to a Philip Glass composition, The Visitors, because it always helps me to slow down.

      In looking through the glass darkly (which are vague memories as alcohol memories seem to be) I remember in my drinking days that my notion was that the troubled state of mind was between drinking episodes but things seemed relaxed while the alcohol was still in me.  So I drank to slow things down only to find them speeding up again. So the expedient but irrational answer was to drink fairly continuously.

     I am looking for resources to develop scenarios that might help correctional officers and other law enforcement people find methods for slowing themselves down.  That could prevent a disaster.  That might also tell them something about whether their alcohol consumption or other drug use might be contributing to their dilemma about how to conduct themselves in an emergency situation. 

     But we need some structure and trying to find a way to do this.  This morning at Lisa's Café everyone was talking at the same time and I did not come away with very much but I did feel tremendous affection for all of the folks at Lisa’s Cafe.  It was like puppies in a pile.   At first the Double Circle Group will not be nearly as much fun as puppies in a pile; but it is a learning process.  The two circles balance each other and the two people who are supporting each other find they can complement each other's ego and awareness.  We can see some of the field of view of our partner in the other circle can see the how we might act in their situation.   Just after I began writing this, I heard that Sadie Darnell the Sheriff of Alachua County had decided to place deputies on patrol in pairs.  

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.