something that grants an immediate sense of Power and Wonder:
using a piece of char cloth to ignite a ball of paper/grass/other kindling. A strike of sparks, one or two long breaths, and you're suddenly holding a ball of fire, hungry for twigs. Assuming you did your diligence and have everything on hand, you can go from a collection of sticks and a couple logs to a hearty fire in seconds. I don't know exactly when I stumbled upon some forum post somewhere going something like, "oh yea you wanna use a striker, make yourself some char cloth and never fight catching kindling again" but I am regularly grateful. I used my last piece today, but past me was a forward thinker and filled my delightfully charred altoids tin slash char cloth oven with old T shirt scraps underneath my last couple of pieces to make it real easy to bake on the fire the last piece made. Thanks, me.