Thank you both Fresco and McGentrix for your clever responses. They were a good read.
Although you have indeed named some bent rulers one seems to have still eluded you.
I thought this would be easier to guess. Lol
So, without further ado, fanfare please and drum roll!
The answer is time.
We bend a ruler to calculate time and this is why time is never precisely measured.
We bend time back upon itself so that the future is always past and the future is nothing but anticipation of the past.
And where the two worlds meet, there is where your cipher lies in zero time where the old is purged and rebirth begins anew.
Thus we measure time with a bent ruler.
Use this to your advantage.