Everyone who participates or reads here for long understands that I love Elder Wirthlin’s orchestra analogy, but something hit me just now as I was typing a comment in another thread in a way that hadn’t registered that clearly before tonight:
We talk of harmony, but it’s easy to forget that “harmony” is impossible if everyone is playing the same melody.
Harmony, by definition, is created when different notes are played at the same time – and, like the tree falling in the forest with no one to hear, harmony only exists at the most practical level when those differing notes can be heard simultaneously.
Thus, harmony in the Church is impossible unless people who would play differing notes allow those notes to be heard – and allow themselves and others to hear the piccolos, as well.