I remember an assignment I had in the fourth grade. We were supposed to walk around our houses and find the best or the most important tools in our homes. I walked first to the barn to look at all the equipment for the yard and fields and paddocks and pens ‑ everything from rusting scythes to filthy posthole diggers to more wrenches than I could count to piles of nails and screws and other fasteners. Nothing there seemed like The Most Important Tool. I tried the garage next ‑ more wrenches and everything was covered in oil, and nothing seemed even as important as the tools in the barn.