An Alternative to the “Midlife Crisis” | Chip Conley | TED

譯者: Lilian Chiu 審譯者: 麗玲 辛

What first pops into your mind when you hear the word "midlife"?

聽到「中年」一詞時， 你首先想到什麼？

"Crisis," yes.

「危機」，是的。

The dreaded midlife crisis is the butt of all kinds of jokes,

可怕的中年危機是各種笑話的題材，

but it's also a serious matter.

但它也是個嚴重的問題。

After I lost a few friends to midlife suicide,

我失去了幾個朋友，他們中年自殺，

I decided to create an alternative narrative

於是我決定要創造一種替代說法，

to the awful way we tend to think of our 40s, 50s and 60s,

讓我們別再用糟糕的視角 來看待我們的四十、五十，和六十歲，

and I'm going to share that with you over the next three minutes.

這就是我接下來三分鐘 要和大家分享的。

Midlife is one of the three life stages that sprouted in the 20th century.

中年期是二十世紀才出現的 人生三階段之一。

Adolescence didn't even exist until 1904,

1904 年之前根本沒有青少年期，

when society realized that just because you hit puberty

直到那年社會才意識到，

光是進入青春期 並不表示你就成年了。

didn't mean you were an adult.

Retirement was popularized nearly a century ago,

退休期則是在近百年前才普及，

with pensions and social security,

人們開始有退休金和社會保障，

and then 25 years later, with the advent of AARP --

再過 25 年，才出現 美國退休人員協會——

I hope you have your card -- and retirement communities.

希望你們有卡——

以及退休社區。

Those two life stages got a whole lot of love,

這兩個人生階段都擁有滿滿的愛，

but there's a life stage in the middle that didn't get much respect.

但中間有一個人生階段

就沒有得到多少尊重。

Midlife is the natural outgrowth

在二十世紀，我們獲得了延長的 30 年壽命，自然就產生了中年期。

of the three decades of additional longevity

we were granted in the 20th century.

But all it got was a bad brand, the “midlife crisis,”

但它卻只得到了個不好的品牌形象，

「中年危機」，

which was coined in 1965.

這是 1965 年創造出來的詞。

Yet research on how happiness evolves as we age

但，關於幸福如何隨著我們 年齡的增長而改變的研究

shows that from about age 22 or 23, all the way to 45 to 50,

顯示出

從大約二十二或二十三歲 一直到四十五到五十歲，

there is a long, slow decline in life satisfaction.

對生活的滿意度 出現又慢又長的下降趨勢。

It bottoms out around 45 to 50, although your mileage may vary.

谷底大約在四十五到五十歲間， 不過大家的哩程數可能不同。

（笑）

(Laughs)

On the other side of that, though,

不過，另一方面，

the good news is that, from age 50 on,

好消息是，五十歲之後，

we get happier and happier.

我們會越來越快樂， 這叫做幸福的 U 曲線。

It's called the U-curve of happiness.

So maybe there's a new framework to think about midlife,

因此，也許可以用 新的框架來看待中年期，

one that we learned when we were kids.

一個我們兒時學到的框架，

The magical metamorphosis of the caterpillar to the butterfly.

毛毛蟲成為蝴蝶的神奇蛻變。

Just as a caterpillar eats incessantly

正如同毛毛蟲準備化成蛹之前 會不斷進食一樣，

just before it's about to spin its chrysalis,

so do we, as young adults, madly consume and produce.

我們還是青年人時， 也會瘋狂地消費和生產。

And then, the caterpillar decides to take its midlife break

接著，毛毛蟲

在生命中期時決定喘口氣，

在蛹中休息一下，

in its chrysalis,

which is dark and gooey and solitary,

這個黑暗、黏滑、孤單的地方， 也是轉變發生的地方。

but it's also where the transformation happens.

On the other side of that, there's a chrysalis that cracks open,

之後，蛹破開了，

and this beautiful winged creature emerges

出現了一隻有翅膀的美麗生物，

為我們帶來喜悅：蝴蝶。

that delights us all:

the butterfly.

So to recap,

總整一下：

the caterpillar consumes,

毛毛蟲進食，

the chrysalis transforms

蛹發生轉變，

and the butterfly pollinates.

而蝴蝶傳授花粉。

What if we rethought midlife,

如果我們重新思考中年期，

such that it's not a crisis, it's a chrysalis.

別把它視為危機，

而是個蛹呢？

The midlife chrysalis.

中年期的蛹。

What if we thought of midlife as the dawning of a new age?

如果我們把中年期 視為新時代的黎明呢？

An age where much of what we accumulated dissolves?

在這個新時代，我們 累積的東西大部分都消失了？

Just as we're ready to transform,

就如同我們準備好 進行蛻變，展開翅膀，

spread our wings

and pollinate our wisdom to the world in our 50s and beyond.

在五十歲之後的日子， 將我們的智慧傳授給世界。

Audience: Yeah. Chip Conley: Yes, yes.

觀眾：是啊。 講者：是的，是的。

If you look at life like that,

如果你這樣看待人生，

it's maybe possible that it's cool to grow old.

也許變老也可以是件很酷的事。

Are we ready for pro-aging,

我們準備好迎接支持老化 而不是抗老化的產品了嗎？

not anti-aging products?

Audience: Yeah.

觀眾：是的。

(Cheers and applause)

（歡呼和掌聲）

CC: Can we make aging aspirational?

講者：我們能讓老化 變成大家夢寐以求的嗎？

I sure hope so.

我肯定希望如此。

謝謝。

Thank you.

(Cheers and applause)

（歡呼和掌聲）