I always get a bit too personal when it comes to the annual 20/20 focus on Men’s Eyewear. I think there are a number of factors at play here:
  • I’m a guy both personally and professionally obsessed with frames for men.
  • I’ve been attached to the 20/20 concept of Modern Man and his eyewear as an entity since the agenda won a highly competitive Integrated Marketing Award over a decade ago via a feature story and a live Expo East event devoted to the powerfully emerging importance of eyewear as an ultimate style accessory for men.
  • I’m a total John Varvatos fan for the man, the brand, his taste in music, his personal and quietly generous missives and… his eyewear. When I got word that he was creating a new artisan collection steeped in rock ’n’ roll details, I had to be the first on line bearing… eyewitness.
  • I come to grips with the fact that my own choices in specs seem to have suddenly gone very quiet in style, size and color over these last few years. Bold, brash styles I favored in the past have given way to small, circular frame fronts in tortoise and muted tans and browns. And I’m not sure at all what got me so quiet, so suddenly in these last two years.
What I do know is that my rather mysterious diagnosis of being a type-1 diabetic just four years ago has had a jarring effect on all sides of my personal health care. And paramount to that is an ongoing four-times-a-year relationship with my amazing ophthalmologist, Dr. Valerie Trubnik. I have numerous doctors to thank for my being able to navigate this rather complex management system coping with diabetes, but Dr. Trubnik is easily captain of this insulin-fueled S.S. Spina as it navigates a safe passage through the dire straits of glaucoma and cataracts as well as the day-to-day relatively smooth sail of coping with my at-times-elusive vision Rx.

You will notice other alerts on the critical relationship of eyecare and type-1 diabetes elsewhere in this issue via the opening ClearVision story by executive editor Christine Yeh in Upfront and in yet another personal reference from our director of education Deborah Kotob in her Pro to Pro column. As I will likely note many times in the next year, this deeper thought side can be expected from 20/20 in 2020 and beyond. It’s what and how we do what we do. It’s personal.   

James J. Spina
Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]