MOST PEOPLE want to be noticed starting from a very young age. And by the time they reach high school, they dream of being "cool"—someone other people will notice and admire. I was no different. I tried hard to dress the right way, to talk the talk that would show I was with it. The irony is that, along with most people, I wound up conforming to everybody else.
Religious institutions that become encrusted with doctrinal rules can be stifling to spiritual growth.
I grew up during the 1960s, when nonconformity was valued above all else. Yet, nowadays, when I look at some of the TV footage of crowds during that era, everyone looks and sounds pretty much the same. What I took to be great armies of "nonconformists" were actually mostly conforming to each other.
