Instruments and Tools
Cultivating a Childs Calling to - Care • Create • Navigate
A book’s cover is a powerful tool. Well done, it summarizes the story, the riddle to solve. What does this book cover mock-up from 2023 bring to mind?
The history of tools, or its more eloquent synonym, instrument, is a deep, deep well to draw from. How many types of instruments do you see in the photo? What field of science or work is captured? What epic doors did they open? What one tool would you add? I’d love to know. Post it with a short explanation if you want in the discussion below.
The special work of instruments is a key theme covered in Patterns of Design. Students learn to look at how tools make other things possible. They are the catalyst that adds speed or accurate reproducibility to a task. Is there a project they have that will benefit from a tool? How did the plow change the world? Beyond my class, what about all the subjects they are learning? What does the math let you see? How does history allow you to evaluate the present? How does time on stage in theater class prepare you to present with confidence? Where will your tool chest take you? For students, it’s a natural fit for many of the games they play. Zelda’s Link is always gathering tools for his legendary travels. The game element mirrors life so well.
I picked out these 16 very carefully to touch on many elements of life. A single archetype could never suffice. And while instruments are often the second fiddle that stands behind the skill of the artist, many tools become a symbol of the entire field. It’s the doctor’s stethoscope, the traveler’s compass, the astronomer’s telescope. Instruments often do more than speed things up; they are the tool that makes it all possible. The plumbline that sets a building straight, The Cello that soothes the soul. The two-minute turn indicator that helps a pilot fly even in the clouds.
As a book cover, now I’d love to write the book. Or… perhaps find that someone already has covered it in detail in their own 400-page tomb :). I begin grad school in a week. I pray this refocus will help me make some time to write more.
A false balance is an abomination to the Lord,
but a just weight is his delight. Proverbs 11:1
The one tool I would add is a lever. My dad always said, "Give me a lever and a solid place to stand, and I'll move the world." The lever magnifies your inherent power, and can often be used my more than one person (many hand make light work...).
So I’ll ‘stack’ a few words. The metronome. I still have the one I used as a very young little girl. My grandmother was the first to introduce me to playing. She watched me and my little brother during the day while the parents worked. She figured out I could listen to songs and pick out the melody on my own. This led to lessons which were paid for by my grandmother selling eggs. Looking back those first piano lessons brought many other lessons my way. I learned discipline brought joy. I experienced joy playing for both my grandmothers and especially my daddy. I would come home from high school head straight to the piano and play Camp Town Races, La Cucaracha,
She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain, Home on the Range, Buffalo Gals and many more for at least an hour. Sometimes more. She would tell me, “Now those are real songs. Not that silly stuff by those silly guys you have those little statues of. Ummm. You mean like Bach? Beethoven? I laughed. But it was one of those times you knew sacrifice, serving and joy go hand in hand. Looking back, all those memories tied to the metronome… God used them to give my life a rhythm that I adhere to today. My grandparent’s budget needed that egg money. As she saw beyond their needs and into the heart of someone else. Years later, the day I realized my other grandmother would wait for me to come home and play the piano it did something to me. It began my lifelong journey to continually look for ways to sacrifice, serve and bring joy.