60: The New 45
花甲退休 還早呢
By E.J. Mundell, HealthDay Reporter

Many healthy Boomers are rejecting the notion of graceful retirement in later life
很多健康的嬰兒潮世代，拒絕以安逸的退休生活渡餘生。

Thirty years ago, Olga Bloom, a professional violinist living in New York City, was celebrating her 57th birthday and thinking hard about how she'd spend whatever years lay ahead.
30年前，奧嘉‧博姆正在慶祝57歲生日，她是一位居住在紐約的職業小提琴冢。同時費心思考，如何渡過餘生。

“I didn’t retire,” said Bloom, now 87, in a recent interview. “I had stopped working in New York as a musician, but I knew I wasn’t just going to sit in a garden and ‘wait.’”
現年87歲的博姆在最近的訪問中說：「我沒有退休，我必須中止在紐約的演奏事業。但是我知道，我不能呆坐在花園等死。」

Instead, she bought herself a barge.
她買了一艘駁船。

With it, Bloom founded Barge Music, and today she still runs her decades-old chamber music “floating concert hall” that is anchored in New York City’s East River. 
博姆成立了駁船音樂會。至今她仍然在繫泊於紐約市東河上的「浮動音樂廳」，經營已達20餘年的室內樂。

As she “pushes toward 90,” Bloom said she’s grateful for the time and opportunity she’s had to help others while doing something she loves. Her advice to the estimated 78 million Baby Boomers who are now reaching age 60: “Look around you, and find that place to be generous.”
當她邁向90之際，博姆說，她感謝有這段時間和機會，能讓她以所好幫助他人。她給年近60，為數7千8百萬嬰兒潮世代人們的建議是：「端詳你的四週，找個可供獻一己的地方。」

Many of the millions of Americans born between 1946 and 1964 are taking Bloom’s advice to heart. Experts say the post-World War II generation is changing the very definition of “old” age. For many, 60 is the not only the new 50 -- it’s the new 45.
數以百萬許計的美國人出生於1946至1964年間，他們將博姆的忠告牢記於心。專家表示，後二戰世代正在改變「老年」的定義。對很多人而言，60歲不只是新50歲，而是新45歲。

“There was this magical age of 65 proposed for retirement in the 19th century, but I think that’s very out of fashion now,” said Bloom’s physician, Dr. Barbara Paris, vice chairwoman of medicine and director of the department of geriatrics at Maimonides Medical Center, in New York City.
博姆的內科醫師巴巴拉‧巴黎斯說：「65歲退休是19世紀訂下的，已不合時宜。」巴黎斯醫師是瑪摩利醫學中心的老年醫學科主任。

“Baby Boomers just aren’t thinking that way anymore,” she said. “Especially if they have financial independence, they’re going to retire from whatever boring job they have and do what they want to do for the next 20, 30 years.”
她說：「嬰兒潮世代的想法不同。如果有自主財力，他們會從無聊的工作中退休，在往後的二、三十年間投入他們的喜好。」

Statistically speaking, the average 60-year-old American can look forward to at least another 20 years of life, Paris said, and probably more. In fact, the insurance industry recently revamped its actuarial tables to reflect life spans that now top-off at a grizzled 120.
統計顯示，平均60歲的美國人可能再活20年，巴黎斯醫師說也許更多。事實上，保險業最近已修正了生命表以反映壽限且上看120歲。

The world’s oldest man, a Puerto Rican named Emiliano Mercado del Toro, turned 115 last week. And the oldest woman, Maria Esther de Capovilla of Ecuador, died Monday at 116, the Associated Press reported.
據美聯社報導，世上最長壽的男人是波多黎各的多羅，已逾115歲。最年長的女人是厄瓜多爾的卡波微雅，死於116歲。

Paris said very few people can expect to live that long, but “it’s reasonable that more of us will live to be over 100.”
巴黎斯醫師說只有少數人才能活那麼久，但我們活到100歲是合理的。

There’s also a continuing trend toward what experts call the “compression of morbidity.” 
這種趨勢仍然持續，專家們稱為「壓縮疾病率。」

“Essentially, the bad things that happen when you are sick is being compressed now into a shorter period at the very end of your life,” Paris explained. That means that today’s over-60s can expect less debilitating, chronic illness than their parents faced, giving them more active, productive lives.
巴黎斯醫師解釋道：「基本上，疾病的發作時間會被壓縮至生命的末期。」這意味著現今60歲的人會比他們的雙親減少衰老和慢性病的困擾。讓他們有較活躍且具生產力的生活。

“In fact, whereas death rates are declining now by about 1 percent per year, morbidity is declining twice as quickly, at 2 percent per year,” Paris said.
巴黎斯醫師說：「實際上，死亡率每年下降1%，疾病率加倍下降為每年2%。」

Better health is even changing the nature of geriatrics, said Paris, who’s been practicing in the field for more than 30 years. “When I started out, anybody over 65 was my patient,” she said. “Now, I rarely see a patient under 75.”
較佳的健康甚至改變了老年醫學的面貌。投入老年醫學逾30年的巴黎斯醫師說：「當我入行時，超過65歲都是我的病人。現在則很少看到75歲以下的患者。」

She credits the increasing pep of America’s older citizens on improvements in preventive medicine, advances in drug development and innovative medical technologies -- especially in areas such as joint replacement and the management of cardiovascular disease.
她讚揚預防醫學在美國資深公民上的進展，藥品和醫療技術的創新，尤其在心血管疾病方面。

Drugs such as Viagra, Cialis and Levitra have even given a boost to aging Americans’ sex lives. One recent U.S.-European study found men in their 50s were now happier with their sex lives than men in their 30s. In another survey, conducted in 1998, 43 percent of both men and women over 60 said sex was as good for them now as it was in their youth.
諸如Viagra、Cialis和Levitra等藥物大大改善了美國老年人的性生活。最近一份美－歐研究報告顯示，年過50的男人較30歲時更滿意他們的性生活。另一份於1988年的調查，43%年過花甲的男女，覺得他們的性生活和年青時代一樣好。

The notion of retirement is changing, too. According to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), recent polls of Americans age 40 and over found two-thirds saying they would work well past 65. For some, financial pressures and a lack of retirement funding make this more of a necessity than a choice. “But even that reflects the perception that they will be healthy enough to work,” a spokesman for the AARP said.
退休的意義正在改變中。依據「美國退休人士協會」近期調查，三分之二年逾40歲的人表示，他們將在65歲後繼續工作。部份原因是財務壓力或退休金準備不足。「美國退休人士協會」發言人稱：即或如此，他們的健康狀況仍能勝任工作。

Many older people are choosing to embark, as Bloom did, on second careers in a field they love. Others are following a more gradual change in lifestyle.
就像博姆一樣，很多老人選擇自己喜愛的工作為職場第二春。其他人慢慢改變生活形態。

“They’re working part-time, maybe changing their position within their institution or work environment,” Paris said. The era of the “golden handshake” as a final good-bye to the workplace is fading, she said.
巴黎斯醫師說：「他們兼差，也許變動原先職位或工作環境。退休會場上的握別，將漸漸消失。」

There’s a downside to everything, of course, even when it comes to extended health and longevity.
就算改進了健康和長壽，凡事皆有負面。

“I have patients in their 90s who are still very functional, but many say they don’t really want to live much longer, because all of their friends are gone,” Paris said. “And in some very sad cases -- not unheard of -- a 90-year-old parent may become the caregiver for a 70-year-old child with cancer or some other illness.”
巴黎斯醫師說：「我有一些90歲的患者仍然機能健全，但是有些人表示朋友都走光了，自已也活膩了。一些更感傷的個案，一位9旬長者仍要照顧患有癌症或其他病痛的子女。

Older workers can also find it tough to compete in the job market, especially when young people fresh out of school will work for relatively little money. “As a society, we’re not set up for them in a positive way,” Paris said. “Despite everything, this is still a country that’s youth-oriented, where young is beautiful and old is ugly. It’s terrible.”
年邁勞工也發現很難在就業市場上競爭，因為剛出校門的年青人相對薪資較低。巴黎斯醫師說：「就社會整體，無可厚非。無論如何，這個國家仍然是年青導向。年青就是美，年老就是醜，真是太可怕了。」

Still, for a growing number of people, a 60th birthday marks a new beginning -- not the beginning of the end.
就人數繼續成長的這一群，60歲生日是新的開始，而不是前往終點。

For Bloom -- who still spends most of her waking hours on the East River managing Barge Music -- it’s all about giving back. “Generosity is necessary,” she said. “You have to give yourself to others, in whatever capacity you can.”
博姆仍然將大部時間用於駁船音樂會的經營，那是一種反哺。她說：「慷慨付出是必要的，你須將一己所能奉獻給他人。」