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Why would I want to learn Chinese?” he asked. “Why not?” I responded.
“It’s really hard. I heard that some words change their meaning merely by the inflection you give them.”
“Really?” “Really.”
There you have it. The word “really” used three times. Spelled the same each time, but with three different meanings depending on the inflection in your voice. There’s nothing like English . . . unless it’s Chinese.
Why would you want to learn Chinese? Here’s why. When President Roosevelt pushed Social Security legislation through back in the ’30s, he was a crafty devil. He knew that based on the life expectancy at that time, many Americans would not live long enough to collect on it—and yet it would fulfill his basic intention of getting older workers out of the workplace and thus open up many new jobs.
But the situation is reversed today. Many people—and I am one of them—are living way past the retirement age of 63–65. I am 72; my father died at 59.
You may wish to work at your career past the age of 65, but the odds are that you will not—unless you are in good health and selfemployed. So the grim specter of retirement looms before you whether you like it or not.
Maybe you will be lucky enough to find an alternative, related career. I retired as a journalist six years ago, but lucky for me, I still do a lot of freelance writing—and also am employed five days a week as a VISTAvolunteer.
But the great scourge of growing old is seeing a diminishment of your mental faculties through things such as Alzheimer’s or dementia. According to the Alzheimer’s Association (www.alz.org), mental decline as you age appears to be largely due to altered connections among brain cells. But it does not have to be that way. The association also reports that research has found that keeping the brain active seems to increase its vitality and may even build its reserves of brain cells and connections. You could even generate new brain cells.
The association also found that low levels of education have been found to be related to a higher risk of Alzheimer’s later in life. This may be due to a lower level of lifelong mental stimulation, they feel. Yet there is a way of heading that off—or even preventing it. Here are some of the ways I would suggest:
1. Learn Chinese. How? Just order a book and a tape from your hometown bookstore. Quite inexpensive—and imagine being the only guy on your block who speaks and reads Chinese. If you want an
easier but equally rewarding language, try French. C’est tres belle, n’est pas?
2. Learn how to play a musical instrument. Take lessons. Patricia Totman, of Hampden, began taking piano lessons in her mid-60s, and now, 10 years later, she still plays. But that’s not enough for her. This spring, she will begin studying acting with the Penobscot Theatre Company.
3. Buy a bicycle—and put some fresh air into your lungs and your brain.
4. If you can, give up car ownership and walk everywhere. I have not owned a car for the past six years. (See “Walking to Paree” in December 2005 issue of Bangor Metro.)
5. Write your memoirs or a family history. No, you don’t have to be a great writer. You’re not planning to submit this for publication. You’re just doing it for the fun of it.
6. Do crossword puzzles, especially those found in The New York Times. (Excalibur makes an electronic device with 1,000 New York Times crossword puzzles for $60. You’ll need your reading glasses, though.)
7. If your town is large enough to have them, attend lectures and ask questions.
8. Enroll in adult education classes. James Walker, of Brooklin, who is 77, is taking an adult education course in creative writing at Searsport High School and another class in poetry at Ellsworth High School.
9. Here’s the best idea of all, and one that may surprise your heirs. Many of us do not have a lot to leave behind in the way of property or money. Still, we have learned some things along the way. And perhaps
those things are worth more than money. So for what it’s worth, leave in your will a credo of what you have learned.
Here’s mine:
I believe you should seek to find the good in everyone.
I believe you should live so that people will come to your funeral out of tribute—and not just to make sure you are dead.
I believe the janitor and the king are the same person—and should be treated as such.
I believe you should try to leave everyone richer than you found them.
I believe that not everything that is presented as the truth is the truth.
I believe that everyone can teach you something.
I believe that when you see a human need, you should be active to it, not passive. Figure out what you can do—and then do it.
I believe that without conviction and without integrity, you have nothing.
I believe that if you are right in what you believe, and no one agrees with you, then you are a Majority of One.
So that’s it. Live until you die. In other words, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And when the end finally comes, be that one who can truly say: “Joi gin.”
That’s “goodbye” in Cantonese.
