I want to be a pick-mattock when I grow up

I am hard pressed to pick a favorite inanimate object. I am tempted by the mannequin head sitting in my closet, my water bottle beckons, my boots and knife plead. My globe begs, my map of Africa entreats, and stalactites are, needless to say, in fierce contention. But I shall select, with no small degree of angst, the noble pick-mattock.

Perhaps I must first explain what a pick-mattock is, given its relative-- and tragic-- obscurity. The pick-mattock is a well named tool, consisting of a pick (a tapered end used for prying) and a mattock (a broad, flat, dull blade used for scraping and digging). The pick-mattock is also a fiercely useful tool, serving as an excellent digger and a world-class remover of small and medium rocks (a rock bar is required for larger rocks). Indeed, the pick-mattock counts among its relatives several impressive implements such as the esteemed cutter-mattock and the venerable Pulaski.

And yet, the pick-mattock leads a challenging life. Day after day, it faces adverse conditions. It is plunged into mud, rock, and roots. The pick sparks with rock with the mattock struggles through sludge. It must, I think, be aware of the weight of its task, but I worry that the pain remains.

But if being a pick-mattock were all discomfort, no one would chose to be one, so clearly there are some advantages to pick-mattock-icity. I imagine, from an outside perspective, that chief among these is the chance to see the world, or at least a portion of it. The trowel, the jackhammer, the screwdriver are resigned to a relatively mundane existence, but the pick-mattock is chiefly used in beautiful places where power tools are either impractical or forbidden. The pick-mattock may suffer, but it suffers in full awareness of the beauty in which it labors. (I will concede that the cutter-mattock leads a similar existence, but contend that its cutter edge has increased its use in gardens and thus decreased the proportion of cutter-mattocks working in truly pristine environments).
A pick-mattock (ungodly clean):


A cutter-mattock (properly dirty):