⊙By Laura Carstensen ⊙ 翻譯：思葦

OLDER PEOPLE ARE HAPPIER老年人更快樂(lè)

⊙By Laura Carstensen ⊙ 翻譯：思葦

都說(shuō)老齡化問(wèn)題是現(xiàn)代社會(huì)面臨的最大挑戰(zhàn)之一，各國(guó)政府紛紛出臺(tái)各種相關(guān)政策，應(yīng)對(duì)日益嚴(yán)峻的養(yǎng)老形勢(shì)——但是，你知道嗎？根據(jù)多項(xiàng)權(quán)威社會(huì)調(diào)查，老年人竟然是幸福感最高的人群！沒(méi)想到吧，聽(tīng)聽(tīng)心理學(xué)家Laura對(duì)此的分析……

People are living longer and societies are getting grayer.You hear about it all the time.You read about it in your newspapers.You hear about it on your television sets.Sometimes,I’m concerned that we hear about it so much that we’ve come to accept longer lives with a kind of1)complacency [k?m?ple?s?ns?] n.自滿，自鳴得意complacency,even ease.

Now there are problems associated with aging—diseases,2)poverty [?p?v?t?] n.貧窮，貧困poverty,loss of social status.It’s hardly time to rest on our3)laurel [?l?r（?）l] n.桂冠，榮譽(yù)laurels.But the more we learn about aging,the clearer it becomes that a sweeping downward course is4)grossly [?gr??sl?] adv.很，非常grosslyinaccurate.Aging brings some rather remarkable improvements—increased knowledge,expertise—and emotional aspects of life improve.

That’s right,older people are happy.They’re happier than middle-aged people,and younger people,certainly.

The5)CDC 美國(guó)疾病控制預(yù)防中心（Centers for Disease Control）的首字母縮寫(xiě)CDCrecently conducted a survey where they asked6)respondent [r??sp?nd（?）nt] n.應(yīng)答者，調(diào)查對(duì)象respondentssimply to tell them whether they experienced significant psychological7)distress [d??stres] n.痛苦，困擾distressin the previous week.And fewer older people answered8)affirmatively [??fз?m?t?vl?] adv.肯定地，斷然地affirmativelyto that question than middleaged people,and younger people,as well.

So how can this be? Well,in our research,we’ve found that these changes are9)ground [gra?nd] v.基于，建立在groundedfundamentally in the uniquely human ability to10)monitor [?m?n?t?（r）] v.監(jiān)測(cè)，監(jiān)控monitortime—not just clock time and calendar time,but lifetime.And if there’s a11)paradox [?p?r?d?ks] n.悖論，反論paradoxof aging,it’s that recognizing that we won’t live forever changes our perspective on life in positive ways.When time12)horizon [h??ra?z（?）n] n.地平線，眼界，范圍horizonsare long and13)nebulous [?nebj?l?s] adj.霧狀的，朦朧的nebulous,as they typically are in youth,people are constantly preparing,trying to14)soak up 吸收soakupall the information they possibly can,taking risks,exploring.We might spend time with people we don’t even like because it’s somehow interesting.You know,we might learn something unexpected.We go on15)blind date 相親blind dates.You know,after all,if it doesn’t work out,there’s always tomorrow.

People over 50? Don’t go on blind dates.

As we age,our time horizons growshorter and our goals change.When we recognize that we don’t have all the time in the world,we see our16)priority [pra???r?t?] n.優(yōu)先，優(yōu)先事項(xiàng)prioritiesmost clearly.We take less notice of17)trivial [?tr?v??l] adj.瑣碎的，無(wú)關(guān)緊要的trivialmatters.We18)savor [?se?v?（r）] v.品嘗，盡情享受savorlife.We’re more19)appreciative [??pri????t?v] adj.感激的，感謝的appreciative,more open to20)reconciliation [?rek?ns?l??e??（?）n] n.和解，妥協(xié)reconciliation.We invest in more emotionally important parts of life,and life gets better,so we’re happier day-to-day.

What will happen to societies that are top-heavy with older people? The numbers won’t determine the outcome.Culture will.If we invest in science and technology and find solutions for the real problems that older people face and we21)capitalize [?k?p?t?la?z] v.利用capitalizeon the very real strengths of older people,then added years of life can22)dramatically [dr??m?t?k?l?] adv.顯著地，引人注目地dramaticallyimprove quality of life at all ages.

My father,who is 92,likes to say,“Let’s stop talking only about how to save the old23)folk [f??k] n.人們，特定階級(jí)的人（復(fù)數(shù)形式）folksand start talking about how to get them to save us all.”

It’s hardly time to rest on our laurels.

參考譯文

人們的壽命越來(lái)越長(zhǎng)，社會(huì)逐漸走向老齡化。你經(jīng)常聽(tīng)到這種話，在報(bào)紙上讀過(guò)，在電視上看過(guò)。有時(shí)候，我會(huì)有點(diǎn)擔(dān)心，因?yàn)檫@樣的話聽(tīng)多了，我們開(kāi)始帶著一種有點(diǎn)兒自滿——甚至安逸的態(tài)度來(lái)接受長(zhǎng)壽這個(gè)事實(shí)。

衰老會(huì)帶來(lái)各種各樣的問(wèn)題，包括疾病、貧困，以及社會(huì)地位的喪失等。這可不是滿足于現(xiàn)狀的時(shí)候。不過(guò)，我們?cè)绞沁M(jìn)行研究，事情就變得越發(fā)清晰——把衰老看作一條勢(shì)不可擋的下坡路是非常不準(zhǔn)確的。衰老也會(huì)帶來(lái)一些非同尋常的進(jìn)步，例如知識(shí)更加淵博，專業(yè)更加精深，人的情緒層面也會(huì)隨之進(jìn)步。

沒(méi)錯(cuò)，老年人是快樂(lè)的——他們比中年人快樂(lè)，當(dāng)然也比年輕人快樂(lè)。

美國(guó)疾病控制預(yù)防中心最近進(jìn)行了一次調(diào)查，他們要求受訪者簡(jiǎn)單回答在過(guò)去一周里是否經(jīng)歷過(guò)重大的心理困擾。對(duì)此做出肯定回答的老年人遠(yuǎn)少于中年人，也比年輕人少。

這是為什么呢？我們?cè)谘芯恐邪l(fā)現(xiàn)，這些改變植根于人類一種獨(dú)特的能力——監(jiān)控時(shí)間，不僅是時(shí)鐘的時(shí)間和日歷的時(shí)間，還包括生命的時(shí)間。如果說(shuō)真有什么衰老悖論，那也是因?yàn)槲覀冋J(rèn)識(shí)到自己無(wú)法永生，我們的人生觀變得更為積極。年輕時(shí)總覺(jué)得人生的終點(diǎn)遙遠(yuǎn)又朦朧，所以人們總是躍躍欲試，希望盡可能地吸收各種信息，樂(lè)于冒險(xiǎn)，到處探索。我們或許會(huì)跟不喜歡的人共度時(shí)光，因?yàn)檫@種感覺(jué)挺有趣的。我們或許會(huì)從中學(xué)到一些意想不到的東西。我們會(huì)去相親——你瞧，說(shuō)到底，哪怕遭遇失敗，明天還是會(huì)到來(lái)的。

而年過(guò)半百的人呢？已經(jīng)不去相親了。

隨著年齡的增長(zhǎng)，我們與人生終點(diǎn)的距離在不斷縮短，我們的人生目標(biāo)也不一樣了。當(dāng)我們意識(shí)到自己的時(shí)間并非無(wú)限，我們就能清楚看到自己的優(yōu)先項(xiàng)，對(duì)瑣碎之事的關(guān)注變少了，開(kāi)始享受人生，更懂得感恩，更愿意和解。我們更專注于情感層面上的重要事情，生活變得更美好，因而快樂(lè)日增。

當(dāng)社會(huì)因?yàn)槔夏耆诉^(guò)多而出現(xiàn)頭重腳輕的人口結(jié)構(gòu)時(shí)，會(huì)發(fā)生什么事情呢？人口比例并不能左右最終結(jié)果——文化才會(huì)。如果我們投入科學(xué)技術(shù)，為老年人面臨的實(shí)際問(wèn)題找出解決之道，如果我們能夠充分發(fā)揮老年人的真正優(yōu)勢(shì)，人類壽命的延長(zhǎng)將會(huì)極大提升所有年齡層的整體生活質(zhì)量。

我父親已經(jīng)92歲了，他愛(ài)說(shuō)這樣的話：“不要再嚷嚷解救老年人了，我們來(lái)談?wù)勅绾巫尷夏耆私饩人腥税?。?/p>