EyeWorld is the official news magazine of the American Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgery.
Issue link: https://digital.eyeworld.org/i/1312630
26 | EYEWORLD | DECEMBER 2020 ASCRS NEWS by Steve Speares ASCRS Executive Director "We're in this together." Each word and phrase has become so ubiquitous they now trigger our brains to tune out whatever follows. The casualties of 2020 were not just the tragically lost lives of family and friends or lim- ited to the tens of millions of jobs and business failures around the world. The carnage is broad- er. The damage COVID-19 has inflicted on the intangibles of the human spirit, on "first princi- ples" like hope and enjoyment, on our collective need for personal interaction and gathering, are much more difficult to measure. With the loss of the ASCRS Annual Meet- ing in Boston, and various other activities, we have lost millions of dollars in revenue, and consequently have needed to reduce millions of dollars in expenses. In 2020, ASCRS reduced staff, took voluntary salary reductions, released our office space, moving to a virtual office work environment, and pulled back on a number of projects and activities. But as we close the year, there is an odd sense of accomplishment. Every professional Changing perspectives continued on page 28 "It is really wonderful how much resilience there is in human nature. Let any obstructing cause, no matter what, be removed in any way, even by death, and we fly back to first principles of hope and enjoyment." —Bram Stoker, Dracula I t might seem odd, even macabre, to begin an article with a quote from Dracula. But the passage beautifully illustrates the spirit of resilience, a timely and popular topic in today's world. I don't know that I've ever thought of hope and enjoyment as being our first principles as humans, but I think Stoker was on to something. Even better, his writing makes me think about what waits ahead as we push forward beyond this "obstructing cause" we face today. For ASCRS members, and our ASCRS staff, 2020 has seen the ultimate examination of our resilience. It would be a tiresome and labored exercise to go through the process of recapping a year that we are all eager to put in the rear- view mirror. "Unprecedented." "Difficult times."