Compass, Ruler, Protractor – required school supplies that are rarely used after graduation. Unless, of course, you are an artist, architect, builder, woodworker, or crafter. These help you draw a good circle, a straight line between two points, and figure out the degree of an angle. With the right notation, a plan drawn on paper – landscape, building, airplane, boat – can be made three dimensional. All that’s needed is the scale.

That’s the thing, though: the scale. What we sketch out in our lives, if not kept in scale, can end up in laughter, a lesson learned, or disaster. Proportion is important. Whether or not we ever use these instruments after graduation…