LET'S BEGIN THE BEGIN!

The title just popped into my head as I was thinking about what I want to write at the beginning of what I am certain will
be a momentous year. I don't think it is an accident that this will be my first full year of physical freedom after twelve years in prison. I think it will be the first year of freedom for a lot of people. Freedom from old ideas, old politics, old ways of looking at our lives and the world. It's an exciting time to be alive.

And in order for it to be that kind of clean new year, we had to go through the fire of a dismal time. War, famine, poverty,
a dysfunctinal political system, all these contribute to the powerful desire for change. At the beginning of each year, I always
ask myself some questions about the year gone by and the one just starting. This year I limited it to one question--What do
I most regret not doing or saying in 2008?--and it's a two-parter--What do I intend to do about this in 2009?

I've been on this planet long enough so that almost everything reminds me of something else. My title sounds like
one of my favorite songs as a kid, Begin the Beguine by Cole Porter. We had a 78 RPM record of the orchestral version of
that song (does anyone still remember what a 78 record was? Or even a record?). And quite recently, as I started exploring the Internet, I came across what many consider the best single dance performance by a male and female dancer ever. It
is Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell dancing to Begin the Beguine. Dance experts have said it may be the most perfect dance
performance ever filmed. Eleanor Powell was fantastic, a huge movie star, when she gave it all up to marry Glenn Ford (and
as often happens, I just interrupted this posting to look up Glenn Ford--O.K., I'll admit it, I couldn't remember if he spelled
his first name with one or two "n"s. Well, on GlennFordbio.com, there's a great story about Glenn, then another about his
and Eleanor Powell's son, Peter. I think I remember Glenn Ford most from his classic role as the teacher in Blackboard Jungle,
the seminal teen movie of my youth, with it's pounding theme song, Rock Around The Clock. Anyway, give yourself a treat,
check out Eleanor Powell and Fred Astaire dancing to Begin the Beguine on YouTube. It puts the performances on Dancing With The Stars to shame--it's dancing with two real stars.

And this brings me to one of those things I regret--not taking the time in the four months since my parole to do some
ballroom dancing, or take some lessons. I will do something about this in 2009. Man does not live by dark chocolate alone--
well, maybe raw foods guru David Wolfe does. I'm reading his book, NAKED CHOCOLATE, a fun and informative adventure,
and a great piece of research for my upcoming book on the health benefits of dark chocolate, DARK MIRACLE.

Which brings me to another thing I regret not doing. In marketing XOCAI chocolate it has been my practice to never
try to convince anyone, and not pursue the subject if the person doesn't already love dark chocolate, or immediatley realize
what a fantastic health food this is, or even--if they can use extra money--what a great business opportunity. I will continue
to have that policy with strangers I happen to meet and discuss this with. But with the people I love and care about, I feel I
owe it to them to persist a bit more. Think about this--if you knew about something that seemed almost certain to extend
someone's healthy lifespan, not to mention prevent and reverse certain debilitating diseases, wouldn't you want all your
friends to know about it, to know everything about it you could tell them? I would hate to think of someone suffering because
I wasn't persistent enough, or didn't present Xocai health dark chocolate in the most attractive way. And I feel good about my
decision not to make a retail profit in marketing the healthy dark chocolate to friends, and then extending that policy to everyone I tell about the chocolate.

They can get their first week's worth at my cost, or sometimes the first month's worth, but after that, if they want more, and most people do, they have to sign up for $35, buy their first two boxes, and deal directly with the company, MXI, in the future. Of course, I eventually benefit from this as their sponsor, but I also intend to work with those who want to do the
business, and to produce some of the company's top earners. I like that they have a system whereby I can sponsor people
who will eventually earn a lot more money than me. It's actually the opposite of a so-called "pyramid scheme" where the
people at the top of the pyramid earn all the big money. Here, it's the new people earning large amounts as they form the
solid base of the business. Come to think of it, General Motors, AT&T, and Microsoft are the real pyramid companies, where
the top echelon of executives make millions and the workers hopefully make a living.

I am so blessed and so thankful to have stumbled upon a vehicle for putting my long-held prosperity beliefs into practice.
I knew while I was sitting in a cell at Folsom that I wanted to devote the rest of my life to helping others--and, I have to mention--having a lot of fun and prosperity while doing so. I just had no idea it would all start happening so soon. But that's
the magic of this magical new year. Begin Your Own Begin!
Jerry Gillies

If you'd like to communicate directly with Jerry, or find out more about his XOCAI project, e-mail at jerrygillies@gmail.com
or check out the blog of one of his partners, Hope Kiah, at www.darkchocolatebenefits.net, or the section on Chocolate For Health at Alphasonics.com, the subliminal tape company run by his longtime friend, Susannah Lippman. And, of course, you
can find out more by simply reading more of these posts.