The pawn is sometimes looked upon as the weakest piece on the board. It can only move forward one space at a time with its only real choice, electing to move forward two spaces during its initial move. Joy!
It can only engage an opponent along a diagonal and can't even remove a piece blocking its way. On a rare occasion they can do something en passant, though typically more than not, a graceful sacrifice of themselves in a blaze of glory. A move that is more fun to do than its meaning and purpose, simply because you finally got to do it and yell, en passant to the person across from you. In the end, you still have no idea what you just did, but somehow feel better about yourself.
In chess, enlightenment comes when you stop seeing the pawn as a single piece, but rather have a moment of realization and clarity seeing for the first time that ALL the pawns exist as a single line of force spreading across the field, a mighty phalanx.
You see that they are meant to work together.
The pawns become the most important piece on the table.
Just some thoughts this morning while waiting to vote ...