Wow. I'm glad I didn't miss this thread.
Doofdaddy nailed it for me:
Being a jw is like being in a one act play over and over.
You put on a costume, put on a face, put on an attitude, then you go home to a semblance of normality.
Like actors in a play that goes for years,after a while the lines come out without thought. The mind separates. The gb cannot really control people any more than a director of a play.
That's exactly how I felt the past couple years without realizing why. I thought I was lacking in some way and I can now understand why I've seen friends plunge into pioneering. It gets so repetitive that you don't even think about what you're doing and then you feel compelled to DO MORE cuz you're not happy. It's not just NY that has all the rules. About 10 or 12 years ago, hubby and I were touring around and decided to find the Bethel in Ireland. It's on a coastal road south of Dublin so we eventually found it. We stopped to see if we could have a tour and they were welcoming but noticed our casual dress and said maybe we should leave the tour for the next day when we could dress appropriately. So we came back the next day. The Irish Bethel has 10 to 12 Bethelites. They mainly only handle distribution of literature and organizing the assemblies. The printing is all done in the UK. We were the only couple there having a tour so I'm not sure who could have potentially noticed our casual dress the day before. The Irish are generally laid-back people but we still had to follow the rules. It seems pretty silly now. I can't believe they'd tell you what to wear in NYC after your visit to Bethel. Oh wait, yes I can, because they always want the brothers and sisters to stay in their stuffy, stuck to you with dried sweat, wrinkled convention clothes (with badges still showing) to dinner after the sessions. Same good advice still applies.