Energy comes from feeling good, not from eating well or sleeping a lot.

今早收到老友轉傳電郵，"Subject: 97 years old doctor & this is what he has to say...." 雖然篇幅有點長，卻也認真的看完這個醫生說些甚麼。

文中提及“Energy comes from feeling good, not from eating well or sleeping a lot.” 感覺良好，便是能量。大家都不想老，卻也不想死。唯有加倍努力，留住活力，務使往後日子，身心俱佳。

越來越容易把不快的感覺撇開，很簡單，個人精力越來越矜貴，管不了別人應該怎樣，管好自己想甚麼和吃甚麼便很好了。

You are what you thought.
You are what you eat.

過好日子，真的很簡單。



轉傳電郵全文如下：
At the age of 97 years and 4 months, Shigeaki Hinohara is one of the world's longest-serving physicians and educators.
Hinohara's magic touch is legendary: Since 1941 he has been healing patients at St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo and teaching at St. Luke's College of Nursing. After World War II, he envisioned a world-class hospital and college springing from the ruins of Tokyo; thanks to his pioneering spirit and business savvy, the doctor turned these institutions into the nation's top medical facility and nursing school.

Today he serves as chairman of the board of trustees at both organizations. Always willing to try new things, he has published around 150 books since his 75th birthday, including one "Living Long, Living Good" that has sold more than 1.2 million copies. As the founder of the New Elderly Movement, Hinohara encourages others to live a long and happy life, a quest in which no role model is better than the doctor himself.

Energy comes from feeling good, not from eating well or sleeping a lot. We all remember how as children, when we were having fun, we often forgot to eat or sleep. I believe that we can keep that attitude as adults, too. It's best not to tire the body with too many rules such as lunchtime and bedtime.

All people who live long regardless of nationality, race or gender share one thing in common:None are overweight. For breakfast I drink coffee, a glass of milk and some orange juice with a tablespoon of olive oil in it. Olive oil is great for the arteries and keeps my skin healthy. Lunch is milk and a few cookies, or nothing when I am too busy to eat. I never get hungry because I focus on my work. Dinner is veggies, a bit of fish and rice, and, twice a week, 100 grams of lean meat..

Always plan ahead. My schedule book is already full until 2014, with lectures and my usual hospital work. In 2016 I'll have some fun, though: I plan to attend the Tokyo Olympics!

There is no need to ever retire, but if one must, it should be a lot later than 65. The current retirement age was set at 65 half a century ago, when the average life-expectancy in Japan was 68 years and only 125 Japanese were over 100 years old. Today, Japanese women live to be around 86 and men 80, and we have 36,000 centenarians in our country. In 20 years we will have about 50,000 people over the age of 100...

Share what you know. I give 150 lectures a year, some for 100 elementary-school children, others for 4,500 business people. I usually speak for 60 to 90 minutes, standing, to stay strong.

When a doctor recommends you take a test or have some surgery, ask whether the doctor would suggest that his or her spouse or children go through such a procedure. Contrary to popular belief, doctors can't cure everyone. So why cause unnecessary pain with surgery I think music and animal therapy can help more than most doctors imagine.

To stay healthy, always take the stairs and carry your own stuff. I take two stairs at a time, to get my muscles moving..

My inspiration is Robert Browning's poem "Abt Vogler." My father used to read it to me. It encourages us to make big art, not small scribbles. It says to try to draw a circle so huge that there is no way we can finish it while we are alive. All we see is an arch; the rest is beyond our vision but it is there in the distance.

Pain is mysterious, and having fun is the best way to forget it. If a child has a toothache, and you start playing a game together, he or she immediately forgets the pain. Hospitals must cater to the basic need of patients: We all want to have fun. At St. Luke's we have music and animal therapies, and art classes.

Don't be crazy about amassing material things. Remember: You don't know when your number is up, and you can't take it with you to the next place.

Hospitals must be designed and prepared for major disasters, and they must accept every patient who appears at their doors. We designed St.... Luke's so we can operate anywhere: in the basement, in the corridors, in the chapel. Most people thought I was crazy to prepare for a catastrophe, but on March 20, 1995, I was unfortunately proven right when members of the Aum Shinrikyu religious cult launched a terrorist attack in the Tokyo subway. We accepted 740 victims and in two hours figured out that it was sarin gas that had hit them. Sadly we lost one person, but we saved 739 lives.

Science alone can't cure or help people. Science lumps us all together, but illness is individual. Each person is unique, and diseases are connected to their hearts. To know the illness and help people, we need liberal and visual arts, not just medical ones.

Life is filled with incidents. On March 31, 1970, when I was 59 years old, I boarded the Yodogo, a flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka. It was a beautiful sunny morning, and as Mount Fuji came into sight, the plane was hijacked by the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction. I spent the next four days handcuffed to my seat in 40-degree heat. As a doctor, I looked at it all as an experiment and was amazed at how the body slowed down in a crisis.

Find a role model and aim to achieve even more than they could ever do. My father went to the United States in 1900 to study at DukeUniversity in North Carolina. He was a pioneer and one of my heroes. Later I found a few more life guides, and when I am stuck, I ask myself how they would deal with the problem.

It's wonderful to live long. Until one is 60 years old, it is easy to work for one's family and to achieve one's goals. But in our later years, we should strive to contribute to society. Since the age of 65, I have worked as a volunteer. I still put in 18 hours seven days a week and love every minute of it.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20090129jk.html

論文和家人

昨日回學校參加研討會，老師請了兩位來自不同門下的博士畢業學長，分享他們當研究生日子的苦樂。其中一位提到研究期間的確是受著無名的孤單和壓力，慶幸有家人的支持，雖然他們不明白她寫的是甚麼東西，更不明白一篇文何以要寫幾年，但卻沒有懷疑過她的決擇。當然，兩位學長都說研究生的生涯雖是苦樂參半，但最終到了獲得博士學位的欣喜，還是感激家人和朋友的精神上支持。他們所經歷的，我大致上也經歷了一大半，不同的是，我生性諸事八掛，用功不專，看書寫作期間，總是開著電子郵箱和Facebook，姊弟朋友間往還答訕，隨意隨時，已是慣常樂事，雖是陋習，卻能有效減除學習上的孤單和壓力。

會後到老師的辦公室報告近月進度，談到一半，我告訴老師，因家中老人家先後入院，原定月底完工的第一章，恐怕未能如期完成，雖然這多少也是個藉口。老師即着我不用掛心，先照顧好家人，跟著大家又回到原先討論。向老師告辭前，他又說了一次：論文不重要，家人才重要。

好多年來，爸媽、姊、弟各有自己的居處，大家一頭半月相聚一遍，就是這樣自然而然、理所當然。這次媽媽高燒入院，才發覺過去以為算是讀過幾篇莊子，大概明白了「適來，夫子時也；適去，夫子順也。安時而處順，哀樂不能入也。」原來，一朝事情真的發生，又另作別算。前幾天媽媽說，入院後夢見中當年常常路過見到的那位土地公，拉她上樓梯，過了一兩天便漸漸好過來了。

在媽媽最弱的時候，弟弟說，無論怎樣，我們要相信，我們過去都盡了最大的努力照顧她。然而，在我，過去兩三年，探望雙親往往是有空才做的事，反正和爸媽通電話，他們最常說的，就是叫我忙自己的事，不用掛心回去看他們。一直總以為，完成論文後便可以有多點時間補償。經此一役，才徹悟到，「第二日」，是很靠不住的三個字。

「吾生也有涯，而知也無涯，以有涯隨無涯，殆已。」雖言如此，還是老師的一句：「論文不重要，家人才重要」，現世一點。