Toolbox

THE HAMMER The hammer is at once the easiest of our tools and the most profound. No other tool fills the hand as much as the hammer does; none inspires the same degree of dedication to the job and such total acceptance of the task. Grasped by the hand, it gives us once again that sensation of freshness in a tool, of a satisfying extension to our bodies, of an effort directed without waste or frustation. O first-rate hammer! Willing brother! Few things are straighforward as you! THE SCREW The screw is the great opportunist; it launches into a longwinded, winding discourse that doesn't allow us the slightest chance to interrupt it or say no. There's no way into it. Rather than penetrate, it insinuates; it sneaks inside, totally impersonally, without showing its face. If it could, it would become invisible. But there lies its strength. THE SPONGE The sponge is amoral. Hence the ease with which it is penetrated both above and below. Uncritically it lets you poke into its most intimate recesses and relieve it of all its secrets. All you need to do is to turn into water. And which of us doesn't do that, when we're confronted by a sponge?