Prompt: Write about a tool that matters to you.
All right, the prompt for today, June 7th, 2026, is: write about a tool that matters to you.
The first tool that comes to mind, outside of my hands, is a pen. I think that’s probably the first tool I’ve picked up and used, and one that I continue to use and continue to embrace. In many ways, literacy is a democratizing, equalizing skill. As the world has become more literate, the opportunity for people to engage with one another and express themselves and their opinions has expanded. Being able to do that through writing and reading extends your reach. So I think the pen is a wonderful tool.
Further to that, though, I think the problem I have, to be honest, is that I often don’t understand enough before getting myself involved in something.
One example that comes to mind is when I was doing photography and using a flash. I remember once—man, this was a terrible showing on my part—I was photographing a gig. A friend of mine was in a band, and I bought this Gary Fong diffuser. The flash was going off during the whole performance. Some of the photos turned out, but it was just an awful use of a tool. It was the inappropriate use of a tool as well.
I should have just bumped up my ISO, accepted some grain, and done something artistic with that. Which is a nice segue into understanding how to use the tools that you have, the limitations they carry, and the creative opportunities that exist because of those limitations. In that instance, some grain and a few long exposures would have created nice movement in the images and probably made for more interesting photographs. Instead, I just had this flash going off in the audience’s faces. To this day, it comes to mind every now and again.
More recently, it would be all the tools I have in my workshop. I probably don’t need them. To be fair, I probably don’t use half of them on a regular basis. I think my table saw was probably not a good purchase. I would have done better to buy a bandsaw. I could correct that by selling the table saw and buying a bandsaw, but I’m not doing that for some reason.
Then there are other tools I have around the shop. I can’t really think of them off the top of my head because I haven’t been there in a few months. The planer, for example. I could have bought a better planer. The hand plane that I bought—I should have spent more money and purchased a better one.
But I’ll also say that one of the things I need to get better at, and one of the things I’m trying to be better about, is using the tools I already have and making the most of them.
Today, for example, we walked into Michaels and I was looking for some clay tools because I have this project in mind that I want to make. I feel like I can’t move forward without those tools now. I probably could. In fact, I most certainly could. I could probably 3D print some of the most important things that I need.
But in my head, I’m stuck on needing those tools.
Will I order them on Amazon instead? Likely.
Will I use them? Unlikely.
But somehow it creates a mental shift where I can finally move forward, and that’s something I have to get over. It’s not the tool that’s important. It’s how you use it, and knowing what it’s capable of.
I hope that’s true.
I think I said something in there anyway.
You can find this prompt and many more at Letters’ Lounge, www.letterslounge.com.
Of course, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment, share a link to your blog or audio journal, or respond however you’d like.
Talk to you tomorrow, folks.
This transcript was lightly cleaned up with the help of AI to improve readability while preserving the original voice and intent of the recording.
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