Coping with the year 2020's multiple mishaps, including COVID-19, using vision concerns as a metaphor, humor as a coping mechanism, hope for a vaccine.

Pic: Public Domain

2020 - what a year this has been!

This year, when I turned 61 in March, I graduated from being only farsighted and only using Reading Glasses to now using Bifocals!

Later that month, as COVID-19 was getting recognition, I got that verdict from my Ochsner Ophthalmologist, Dr. Curtis Creed, who noted that it was time for me to get prescription glasses for both near and farsightedness!

With the ongoing dysfunctional political chaos from both parties, the COVID-19 pandemic crisis tragedies, isolation and loneliness, racial unrest, Jazz Fest cancellation, mega hurricanes, school closures, church, sports and entertainment modifications, flooding, and many other unsettling matters, it surely has been difficult to keep a positive focus on things.

So what kind of perspective have I gained in life from all of this and/or is it too early to proclaim that line, “Hindsight is 20/20 Vision?”

Well, after first getting my cool tortoise shell eyeglasses at the Wal-Mart Vision Center, it took me a little while to get used to looking at things near and far without making some big adjustments.

In my Social Work profession, we strive to better understand and bring about enhanced coping strategies for the struggles we all face in our lives. I had been in denial for a long time about needing glasses and addressing some social issues, but there's no denying how cumbersome our lives have been disrupted in 2020.

Yes, things have never been so topsy-turvy and without normalcy as things have been in 2020, and I guess I'm secretly hoping to get quick fix “Lasik procedures” sooner than later to help me with both short and long-term vision and coping concerns.

While I may not yet be able to join in singing Johnny Nash's uplifting “I Can See Clearly” song, I surely can keep moving forward with others hopeful for a COVID-19 vaccine soon.

On the light side, it is neat to think that I may not be here if it were not for my late Dad getting his eyes checked. Since dad was about 12 years older than mom, dad was not sure if he had a chance to win my late mom over. He met her when he went to the doctor to get a physical and also to get his eyes checked.

My mother, while not a nurse, did many things for Dr. LaRose, a General Practitioner. So as dad was getting his preliminary reviews by mom, before Dr. LaRose came to exam him, dad would always later relate that he had said to himself then as he was beholding mom for the first time, “My eyes seemed to get better!”



Keith John Paul Horcasitas, 1133 Knollhaven Dr., BRLA 70810, November 24, 2020.