We developed silos to effectively store items, like harvested crops, in bulk supply. Here in the Midwest they are easily identified, as we drive through our states labeled as the “breadbasket” that feeds the world. In doing so, we cross some of earth’s richest farmland. It is land so flat that it seems as if we are literally atop a gigantic dinner table that stretches for endless miles in every direction.
Every so often our sightline is interrupted by these colossal cylindrical tubes, looking like giant salt and pepper shakers, inviting the world to dine atop this huge dinner table of ours. It is a familiar sight to many of us, as we gaze upon these silos from their outsides. Indeed, they are a comforting sight. They provide great security because we know that they contain enough dinner to feed the whole world. As long as they are full, standing there stretching skyward, these giant salt and pepper shakers stand ready to season and feed the world, affirming we will not go hungry.
Such is the view from the outside of these silos. Yet from the inside of any one of them we cannot see the world’s dinner table upon which it sits. Heaven forbid if we were forever trapped within any one of them, even voluntarily, we would have no knowledge of the world beyond the common characteristics of the items contained within that single silo. From this inside view, we would glean a very limited understanding of the world. True, each of us could possibly see the benefit in the likeness and herd mentality of others like us within that silo, for we would definitely not be threatened by any extreme fear of difference there.
Yet it would be a world that would lack the diversity of vision, thought and experience which exists beyond the constraints of that silo. Consequently it would lack the benefits of many competitive viewpoints, which are the motherhood of unparalleled creativity, which seasons our world beyond the confines of the insides of its silos. True, not all similarity is bad, in as much as not all difference is good. However throughout human history our greatest creativity has often been gained at the intersections of differences.
When we open our minds to this creative possibility of life beyond our silos, we become aware that we were never meant to be solely confined to the limitations bound within them. We become aware that there are productive viewpoints beyond simply right and left, and beyond FOX News and MSNBC. We become aware that nuance is more often the refined explanation of life. We become aware that left is not always wrong, and right is not always right. We discover that parroting news is often primarily about affirmation of viewpoints we already possess, echoed within each of our silos of residential constraint. In that regard, we learn that new information and discovery is primarily gained from communications that exist beyond our silos of confined limitation.
It is then that we discover that silos are best used for the storage of commodities and crops. And their worst use is for confinement of people and ideas.
Rev. Tony Pierce is co-senior pastor at Heaven’s View Christian Fellowship and CEO of Heaven’s View Community Development Corp., cited as one of Illinois’ top 20 faith-based community development paradigms.