I struggle to cope with the demands of middle age. You sleep the half-sleep of the 49-year-old, get up feeling hungover even if you didn’t drink the night before, and then plunge into the new “rush hour of life”: the forties have become the decade when child-rearing and career peak coincide. Our duties would be tough even if our bodies weren’t decaying. (Productivity declines from about age 50, as corporate human resources departments know very well.) But I have found a new way of coping: I have radically cut down my drinking from moderate to almost nothing. So far, it’s working. I’d almost call it an elixir of youth.
我挣扎着应对中年的各种苛求。你从49岁的人那种典型的浅睡眠中醒来，即便前一晚没喝酒也有宿醉的感觉，然后便一头扎进新的“人生高峰期”：40岁至50岁成了养育孩子和事业巅峰同时发生的10年。即便我们的身体还未锈蚀（公司的人力资源部门都知道，生产率从50岁开始下降），我们肩负的责任也已经够艰巨。但我找到了一种新的应对方法：我把自己的酒精摄入从适度饮酒降至几乎为零。这个办法迄今很管用。我几乎要把它称为永葆青春的灵药。