EUREKA, AHA, and THE MARSHMALLOW MOMENT!

In the mid 70's I was an elementary music teacher when one Friday afternoon some members of the faculty decided to celebrate the end of a particularly hectic week. During the discussion the kindergarten teacher walked into the faculty lounge and was invited to join us. She had a side business as a baker and declined by saying "Thank you, but I have to go home and make marshmallows."
I thought "Wait, you don't make marshmallows. Marshmallows come in a plastic bag or in a jar as marshmallow cream".  In the following weeks her statement would come to mind and I kept thinking about it. Finally I thought- "Well.....someone has to make them". Then my thoughts began to snowball, "Someone must have made the threads on a bolt for the first time." Likewise someone came up with the idea of units of length measurement.
All of these concepts I learned in school but since they already existed I just took them for granted.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BUY IT. YOU CAN MAKE IT!

That thought, that concept was liberating. You don't have to accept what is the norm or what is just offered. Things can be adapted, new things can be made. You might read this and think "DAH", but this was a turning point for me considering I have remembered that one statement for over 40 years.
I didn't jump out of my bathtub and run naked through the streets. This was however, what gave me the freedom (in my mind) to redesign or make different percussion instruments and accessories.