Trappings against the center

It is so very easy, with whatever we deal with, to get overcome with the trappings. We focus on the things that don't matter because they're the things that are easiest to deal with. When facing parenthood, it's easier to focus on booties than the lack of sleep. When dealing with religion, it's easier to focus on the candles and the clothing than it is to focus on the personal changes and the hard work involved.

The problem is, trappings are empty. They're easy, but they're empty. One can have every bootie in existence, and you're still no more ready for motherhood. One can have memorized every meditation of FlameKeeping, have candles of every type and shape, and blather on about the Divine, and yet have absolutely no clue about what FlameKeeping is.

The core of FlameKeeping is the Divine and that we are part of It, as is everything else. It is the Flames, Bright and Dark, and balancing and growing them. It is ourselves. Trappings would be things like the mechanics of the meditations (which are important only in what they teach you, not in the mechanics themselves), the poetry, the essays themselves. They lead you to the core, if they're done well. But the core isn't the essays, the core is where the essays lead you to.

Questions:
Do you tend to get caught up in the trappings of things? Do you find the core? Does it depend on what it is?
What happens when you get caught up in trappings? What does it do to you?
What is core to your beliefs? Why? What does that core mean?