When one talks of his passion, the conversation can get very animated. This is what happened when StarLife interviewed Dr. James Weyrich, an optometric physician for almost 40 years, who works at the Wal-Mart in Aberdeen, a medium-sized city in the Northwest Pacific state of Washington.

Dr. Weyrich, who has a long track record in medical missions, has just completed the first of his 2007 vision mission in Negros Occidental, an outreach he has been conducting for the past two years, particularly in Bago City.

The visiting specialist was apparently excited as he shared with StarLife the immediate plans to expand the services of his organization, EyeCare WeCare, which hopes to include other Negros towns and islands in the country when it delivers mobile services through the acquisition of a vehicle that would easily transport heavy and delicate equipment to and from their base in Ma-ao, Bago City. The foundation also plans to start an optometric laboratory to sustain its free eyeglasses program.

Still on visual-related concerns, this time on the aesthetic aspects, we feature in our center spread the opening of the 32nd anniversary exhibit of the Art Association of Bacolod. The display of 105 paintings done by 55 artists in the city has made the anniversary show the biggest ever art exhibit in this part of the country, re-affirming the vibrancy of the art and culture scene in Negros Occidental.

We are featuring another form of visual art - the human interest photos taken under limited conditions by college editors in their regional journalism workshop held in Iloilo City last week. The experience gave the young lens men and women a first-hand opportunity of the time-bound realities when scouting and shooting photos for the news media publication.

If you plan to go to the U.S. Midwest, particularly in Chicago, or other parts of the state of Illinois, you will no longer enjoy the privilege of smoking anywhere starting next year. Our Chicago-based columnist, Nelia Dingcong-Bernabe, writes about this new law in her column, Flip Side. For the smoker, this has become an 'inconvenient truth" but for those who prefer a smoke-free environment, this is legislation is long overdue.