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.
我掙扎著應對中年的各種苛求。你從49歲的人那種典型的淺睡眠中醒來，即便前一晚沒喝酒也有宿醉的感覺，然後便一頭扎進新的「人生高峯期」：40歲至50歲成了養育孩子和事業巔峯同時發生的10年。即便我們的身體還未鏽蝕（公司的人力資源部門都知道，生產率從50歲開始下降），我們肩負的責任也已經夠艱鉅。但我找到了一種新的應對方法：我把自己的酒精攝入從適度飲酒降至幾乎爲零。這個辦法迄今很管用。我幾乎要把它稱爲永葆青春的靈藥。