FIVE days after receiving his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree from The University of the West Indies, as if that was not impressive enough, blind Senator Floyd Morris will today launch his autobiography, a powerful story of dark struggles and unbelievable triumphs.

Morris titled the book By Faith, Not By Sight — The Autobiography of Jamaica’s First Blind Senator in which he spared no personal embarrassment or secret shame that now serve as the mileposts along his journey — that of a poor blind boy, often without hope, beset by depression, but at last the soaring triumph over cruel adversity.

“…For too long I had dwelt in a place of hurt. But the day had come when I would find a way to navigate through my situation and to come to the realisation that I had a choice: I could suffer and feel every nuance of the injustice I thought was inflicted upon me, or I could meet God in my pain,” Morris wrote in the preface.

“Thirty-one years before, in 1986, I had left the St Mary High School…The last of the seven years I had spent there was singularly unimpressive. I departed without a single academic subject, mainly because my sight had deteriorated so badly that I was unable to complete my Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) exams…

“The clang of the heavy, rusting metal gate of St Mary High had an eerie sound of finality as it closed behind me. Despair and hopelessness suddenly washed all over me like cold sweat. The school’s motto was ‘Faith and Courage’ but on that final day I felt none of that.

“Most of my friends had moved on and, at home that cursed day in the mocking quiet of this sleepy village of Bailey’s Vale, I felt, perhaps for the first time, what it was to be entirely alone. I was a soul in crisis.

“At 17 years old, I was still too young to fully fathom the reality that was staring me in the face. But I knew enough to realise that if I stayed at home, a severely visually impaired, uneducated boy without a skill, my life would be a tragic tale of abject poverty, sickness and uselessness.

“From out of nowhere the tears came cascading down my face and I found myself praying as I had never done before, ‘Oh God, Oh God, wha mi a go do now’?” Morris recounted.

Governor General Sir Patrick Allen will officially launch the book and guest speaker will be former Prime Minister P J Patterson, at a ceremony starting at 6:00 pm at the Regional Headquarters Building of The UWI, Mona, in St Andrew.