AoA's

[Koch, KA Kimberly 4384]

Diarmuit,
I truly admire the high standards you've set for yourself.  I think I can 
understand how you must feel, getting an award *you* don't think you've 
earned.  I've known a couple of other people that it's happened to, and it's 
invariably disappointing and frustrating, and must surely be even more so if 
you've expressly made your wishes known.  I understand that you're angry, 
and I apologize if I'm about to make it worse. However, this is something I 
feel very strongly about and I just have to say this.  I've come to believe 
that awards have as much to do with the people who give them as they do with 
the people who get them.  If I put someone in for an award, it's because I 
am genuinely and deeply grateful or appreciative of the work they've done, 
and I want to show them in a real and concrete way how sincerely I believe 
that.  Although the crown gives out the award, it's really coming from the 
hearts of the people who know you and respect you and honestly believe that 
you *truly* deserve it.  I feel like an award is really a gift bestowed upon 
you by your friends, and rejecting that gift is tantamount to rejecting 
their affection for you and their belief in you.  I realize that every 
situation is different.  I realize that I don't know you.  But even taking 
that into account, I can say that you are a sane and level-headed voice on 
this list, and that you have a gift for research that some of us only wish 
we had.  That alone is enough to make you worthy of the title 'Lord'.  Don't 
sell yourself short, and don't forget what that AoA really means - somebody 
noticed, somebody was appreciative, somebody *cared*.

Thyra of Black Oak Keep
kochka at gvl.esys.com