To Karin (Amor vincit omnia).

Once upon a time, there was a woman and a hawk. They lived
in a small village, in a smaller Swiss canton, high in the Alps. The village
was a quiet and peaceful place. The people worked hard, and they certainly knew
how to play and dance after a long season of work and at harvest time.

As time went on, some in the village began to complain about
the woman and her hawk. She seemed to spend her days, sitting on a rocky crag
with her bird, gazing out over the valley, apparently dreaming, seemingly
oblivious to the needs of the people. Soon, more and more villagers began to
complain. They thought the woman was lazy. She was not working long hours in
the field as they were. She was not producing anything of worth or note for the
village. She did not seem to be contributing to the welfare of the community.
After all, the citizens of the village worked long and hard hours, and they did
not have time to sit around, preening themselves under the warm sun, high on the
hard rock rim under the warmth and light of daystar. Many people began to
resent feeding the hawk and the woman who sat on the rock edge, apparently
doing nothing.

A committee was formed, and they voted unanimously to banish
the woman and her hawk. A letter was sent to her, stamped with the official
seal of the town. The next day at dawn, when the bridegroom of the day rose
under the blue canopy, the woman and her hawk left.

Within a long year, many of the people in the Alpine village
died. A disease, carried by an army of rodents, crawled into every chalet,
infecting parents and children alike.

The moment the woman and the hawk left the village, the
rodents knew they could enter worry fear or worry.

Those who were left in the village finally turned and lifted
their eyes to the hills, and there, waiting patiently, was the woman and her
hawk.