i happen to live with the winner

Established in 1984, named for Richard R. Dilling, an industry pioneer and former Vice President of AIM, the Dilling Award is the highest award given in the Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) industry. It is presented to executives, scientists, and engineers in recognition of outstanding contributions that have furthered the growth of the industry through important applications and new technological developments. The recipient is nominated and selected by the AIM president, and committee of the industry's elite. Only one award is made each year, selected from many worthy candidates.

birdie

I wasn't sure of the species until a pro golfer took aim recently and killed one. When it was reported to be a Red Shouldered Hawk that interrupted the golfer's videotaping, I knew that its distinctive call contributed to the culprit's downfall. For over a year, I've watched but mostly heard several of these birds reigning in the woods and over the stream behind our house.

On Saturday, while I was monitering stormy weather from the sunporch and phoning our son near downtown Atlanta to take shelter in his laundry room, two of these large colorful creatures swooped within inches of the window. They lit together on a nearby tree limb long enough for me to call my husband away from the tv news report. As we watched, one glided to a lower limb while the other proceeded to chip away at what it held between its talons.

24 hours later and several miles away, as we hiked from the church building to a nearby sports arena where we had parked the car, we heard the piercing call and spied its silhouette high in a leafless tree.

visit the shack

I was intrigued when a friend handed me a copy to read and said we'd discuss. I don't take much time for fiction and if it's scary, it doesn't make for bedtime reading, my sedative of choice. But I savor the attention of this friend with her unique perspective, so I did as I was told.

When we shared notes, these emerged as similarities:

• we experienced a happiness despite the story's circumstances; a lightening of our burdens.
  
• we explored abandonment issues.
  
• we accepted the premise that the son is the reliable way to know the father, but there are many ways to knowing the son.

Return to the most human,
nothing less will nourish the torn spirit,
the bewildered heart,
the angry mind:
and from the ultimate duress,
pierced with the breath of anguish,
speak of love.

Return, return to the deep sources,
nothing less will teach the stiff hands a new way to serve,
to carve into our lives the forms of tenderness
and still that ancient necessary pain preserve.

Return to the most human,
nothing less will teach the angry spirit,
the bewildered heart;
the torn mind,
to accept the whole of its duress,
and pierced with anguish…
at last, act for love.

~ May Sarton ~