智慧人生篇章 第38期:关爱老人,传递温情

 　　A photo of the Rolling Stones was prominent in the papers yesterday, as they came together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first live performance in 1962. Their faces revealed that they had, to put it politely, aged¹ somewhat. "You are old Father William" said the child in the nursery rhyme, and so is each one of us of course in due time. As far as evolution is concerned, that time comes when we've done all that is necessary, that's, passed on our genes² to another generation. Then we can simply be left to die.

　　滚石乐队再聚首，庆祝1962年首度登台表演50周年。昨天报纸刊登了他们十分引人注目的照片。委婉地说，他们的相貌颇为成熟。“你已经老啦，威廉爸爸”，儿歌里这样唱到。毋庸置疑，我们每个人到了特定的时候都会如此。从进化的角度考虑，当我们已经完成了所有必尽之事——传宗接代后，时辰就到了。剩下的事情仅是苟且偷生罢了。

　　Again, as far as a society driven by economic activity is concerned that time comes when we're no longer productive and we're ready for recycling. So when we look at that aging face in a care home or in a hospital bed what is there to stop us getting really depressed³? Do we have a vision of what it is to be a human person which will undergird and sustain the gentle care which the elderly need?

　　在如今这个被经济活动所驱使的社会里，年长的人失去了生产力，还要做好被回收利用的打算。因此，当我们看到护理中心或者医院病床上那一张张衰老的面容而唏嘘不已时，怎样才能走出消沉呢？给予老人温柔的呵护与扶持是做人之本。我们有这个认识吗？

　　Recently I was in Georgia, what I call proper Georgia, in the Caucasus, to speak in their European week, and one day I managed to get out into the country for a lovely walk with a friend. It came out that it was my birthday, and unknown to me, he rang up someone he knew in a nearby village. In this very simple home we were shown characteristic Georgian hospitality, and then the toasts began. First to me, then to my surprise to my parents, and then to everyone's parents, and then as they put it, "to our forebears to whom we owe so much." It was such a contrast to our normal highly individualistic way of thinking. Striking too was their moving sense of gratitude⁴ to the older generation. And yet even gratitude may not be enough. After all, sometimes people do feel pretty fed up with the old. We need something even more powerful, something to sustain our best attitudes, whether we're feeling appreciative⁵ or highly irritated, quite simply a sense of the value of the human person as such. We need it in our care homes, and we need it to be expressed in the political policies of the State towards the elderly.

　　最近我前往格鲁吉亚，在为期一周欧洲会议上发言。该地位于高加索山脉，是严格意义上的格鲁吉亚。某日，我得以从工作中抽身，和友人在乡间散步，十分惬意。结果那天是我的生日，朋友瞒着我给他邻村的朋友打了电话。在简朴的房间里，他们用典型的格鲁吉亚的待客方式款待了我们。随后我们举杯庆祝。首先是为我祝酒，让我吃惊的是，我们之后依次为我的父母和每个人的父母祝酒。他们还说“我们欠了先人太多。”这与我们平时高度的个人主义思考方式大相径庭。吸引我的还有他们对长辈们令人动容的感激之情。然而，仅仅感激是不够的。毕竟人们有时会对老人感到厌烦。我们需要更强有力的做人的价值观来支撑我们，使我们无论喜怒都以最好的态度来对待老人。护理中心需要这样的态度。国家在针对老人出台的政策中也应有所体现。

　　You don't need to be religious to have this attitude. But I do think that a Christian⁶ understanding of what it is to be a human person made in the image of God, with a spiritual orientation⁷ and destination, does give a dimension that suffuses⁸, and reinforces our best human values and attitudes. As Gerard Manly⁹ Hopkins puts it in his poem on the resurrection: This Jack¹⁰, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal¹¹ diamond, is immortal diamond. From one point of view we human beings are just a joke, a broken piece of pottery¹² or potsherd, a used match, but essentially¹³ we are immortal diamonds.

　　这样的态度并不一定要通过宗教来获得。基督徒拥有精神归宿，认为上帝按照自己的样子创造了人类。而我认为他们的这种认识确实能加强人类最善的价值观和态度，并将其发扬光大。正如同杰拉尔德?曼利?霍普金斯描述复活的诗句：世间凡人，是一场笑谈，是破损的陶片，是破烂的补丁，是用过的火柴，是永恒的钻石。从某种角度上看，我们人类只是一场笑谈、一块破损的陶片、一根用过的火柴，但在本质上，我们是永恒的钻石。

1 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

2 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪

3 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

4 gratitude   

adj.感激，感谢

参考例句：

• I have expressed the depth of my gratitude to him.我向他表示了深切的谢意。
• She could not help her tears of gratitude rolling down her face.她感激的泪珠禁不住沿着面颊流了下来。

5 appreciative   

adj.有鉴赏力的，有眼力的；感激的

参考例句：

• She was deeply appreciative of your help.她对你的帮助深表感激。
• We are very appreciative of their support in this respect.我们十分感谢他们在这方面的支持。

6 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

7 orientation   

n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍

参考例句：

• Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
• The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。

8 suffuses   

v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• A rosy glow that suffuses snow-covered mountain peaks at a clear day. 她困恼的最顶点出现在一个覆盖著冰雪的纽西兰山上一时的无力感。 来自互联网

9 manly   

adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地

参考例句：

• The boy walked with a confident manly stride.这男孩以自信的男人步伐行走。
• He set himself manly tasks and expected others to follow his example.他给自己定下了男子汉的任务，并希望别人效之。

10 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

11 immortal   

adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的

参考例句：

• The wild cocoa tree is effectively immortal.野生可可树实际上是不会死的。
• The heroes of the people are immortal!人民英雄永垂不朽！

12 pottery   

n.陶器，陶器场

参考例句：

• My sister likes to learn art pottery in her spare time.我妹妹喜欢在空余时间学习陶艺。
• The pottery was left to bake in the hot sun.陶器放在外面让炎热的太阳烘晒焙干。

13 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。