英语趣谈:Aging可以不令人沮丧

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Age解年龄,是个中性的字。 What is your age?(你几多岁?)问的是客观的事实,不一定要勾起情绪的反应,不过成年以后,大家都不喜欢谈年龄,年龄愈大愈抗拒。

Aged是形容词,解有关岁数的;例如︰The marvelous piano recital was performed by a boy, aged 11.(精采的钢琴独奏,表演的是一名11岁的男孩。)Aged亦可解having lived or existed for a long time或very old,年迈的;例如︰He is an aged man with white hair.(他是一名白发苍苍的老翁。)Aging解the process of growing old,变老的过程、老化。年老体力衰退、多病痛,失去工作能力。就算仍然有心有力,也要被迫退休,制度如此,没办法。 Aged一无是处,所以没有人真心喜欢与aged扯上关系,当然也不想被人用aged这个字来形容。

社会边缘

人的寿命愈来愈长,大部分人六七十岁依然健壮,活到85岁以上也一点不出奇,但现今社会的观念和实况对年长的人并不友善。 Thomas Cole和Mary Winkler的The Oxford Book of Aging书介有这样的观察:

… our culture offers few convincing(令人信服的) ways to help us find purpose in our later years. The ancient and medieval(中世纪的) vision of aging as a mysterious part of the eternal order of things has given way to the secular(世俗的), scientific, and individualistic(个人主义的) outlook of modernity.

No longer seen as a way station(中途小站) along life’s spiritual journey, old age has been redefined as a problem to be solved by science and medicine. Older people have been moved to society’s margins(边缘), and, as a result , we have become uncertain about what it means to age.

古代或什至中世纪年代,社会对年老的观念有别于今天的摩登想法。以往,大家觉得年老是人生旅程的一个中途站,还带点神秘感,但今时今日,老年人被重新定性为一个科学与医疗要解决的问题,老人家被推到社会边缘,所以在老年的问题上,大家都不大知道应该怎样自处。

这样观察绝对准确,在世界很多地方,aging population(老化的人口)并不是被视作值得庆幸的事,连中性也不是,而是个迫切要解决的问题。报章头条用上”time bomb”(计时炸弹)、”cause for concern”(值得关注)等字眼。政府的文献圆滑点,但也见”demographic challenge”(人口上的挑战)等方法来形容人口老化的“问题”。

其实,年老等于“风烛残年”只是一种想法,生命中每个阶段都有它的意义,有问题也有可以庆幸和享受自处。 Martha Nussbaum和Saul Levmore在Aging Thoughtfully: Conversations about Retirement, Romance, Wrinkles, and Regret中写道:

Aging is many other things. For some people, it might be about regretting, worrying, hoarding(聚积钱财), and needing. It can also be about volunteering(做), comprehending(理解), guiding, rediscovering, forgiving, and with increasing frequency, forgetting.

老年典型

社会一早就向我们灌输种种aging stereotype(老年的典型),这些典型化的观念一生困扰我们,所以专家忠告:Whatever it takes, realize that aging is cultural as well as physical. If you live – or grew up – in an ageist(有年龄歧视的) society like the US, make a conscious decision to reject harmful stereotypes of aging. Your brain, and possibly your body, will thank you.

想办法对抗这些令人沮丧的、对老年人的典型化想法,对身心都有益处!

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