Thanks Graham, appreciate the good words and the support.

It's funny how we humans tend to "self-organize" into clusters... and then these clusters almost immediately start having a clubby/cultish feeling to them. I can relate to the Unitarian example... I've seen the same thing locally.

This post was originally prompted by a Facebook discussion in which this very bright and insightful kid of 20-something was being taken to task over his insights because-- in the eyes of some older group members-- he "hadn't suffered enough." And it struck me that we were having a "suffering contest" that actually had little to do with self-realization, and a lot to do with having a pissing match. And I thought about how widely this can be applied... from spirituality to art (the "angst ridden artist" is the most authentic-- but WHY?).