“Take a risk,” Ray told us when we discussed next week’s exercise. He advised us to cultivate close friendships and talk with some of my siblings about problems we’d faced. “If you can share a little bit more about the things you’re struggling with, it gives them permission to do likewise.” It wasn’t easy. After so many years of being warned not to “stir up contention among the brethren,” I was preprogrammed to keep my thoughts to myself. But as soon as I opened up for the first time—saying yes to one of my brothers when he told me he liked a girl and asked if he could come over and get my
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