Eyeworld

30 | EYEWORLD | SPRING 2024 ASCRS NEWS ing captures the spirit of this society's incredible journey. Now, to the important question, does any of this matter? I am but one person with what would likely be considered a strong bias on the matter, but I am confident in declaring that the story of ASCRS is compelling, intriguing, and constantly evolving. All the attributes you would want in an entertaining story. In 1746, a group of publishers approached English writer and lexicographer Samuel John- son with the idea of creating an authoritative dictionary of the English language. Unable to achieve perfection or finality, he compared his plight to the ancient Arcadians chasing after the sun. For, try as they did, whenever they reached the crest of the hill upon which the sun appeared to sit, they found that it was still the same distance away. I found this anecdote a nice analogy in looking to the next 50 years of ASCRS. The sun will never be caught, but the pursuit will guar- antee a vibrant, healthy medical society with much more history to be captured and retold. In the end, History matters. well ahead of the curve when he wrote, "If his- tory were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten." My hope would be that Mr. Kipling would approve of our efforts at the AS- CRS Annual Meeting in Boston. In video, print, and static display, we have made an effort to tell the story of our organization's first 50 years in a comprehensive yet entertaining manner. Ultimately, the controversy of telling history often rests in who is doing the telling. Mark Twain once wrote "The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice." While there are countless examples of this truth, we are extremely fortunate to have a number of our early leaders still with us to give first-hand accounts of the creation of AIOIS, which was re- named to ASCRS. There is also video footage of interviews captured with a host of early ASCRS leaders going back to 1994. Is our account 100% accurate and perfectly told? Likely not. We are at the mercy of individ- ual recollection and technologies that simply did not lend themselves to seamless instantaneous capture 40 and 50 years ago. But over several months, we have endeavored to build the com- plete narrative of the first 50 years of ASCRS. We are confident, at a minimum, our storytell- continued from page 29 Interest in learning more about the histories of foreign peoples and places: 34% Greatly interested 34% Somewhat interested 19% A little interested 13% Not at all interested Burkholder P, Schaffer D. History, the Past, and Public Culture: Results from a National Survey. American Historical Association. 2021.

• Blank Page
• Blank Page (1)