與猝死的幽靈終日相伴是何滋味(下)
Studies show that imagining your own demise can even change your biases and politics. (Read more: “Why contemplating death changes how you think”).
研究表明想象自己的死亡有助於改變偏見和政治。
There’s a concept in psychology called Terror Management Theorythat suggests that when humans are subconsciously presented with the concept of their own deaths, they become less tolerant and more aggressive. One of the classic studies in this theory involves judges presented with a court case in which they have to set a bond for the defendant. Judges who were not subconsciously reminded of their own death before the fake trial set an average bond of $50. Those who were reminded of their mortality set an average bond of $455.
心理學上有一種理論叫做恐怖管理理論，這個理論認爲當人們意識到自己面臨死亡時，他們的行爲會變得不寬容，更具攻擊性。這一理論中的一個典型案例研究涉及一名法官當面臨在一場官司中爲被告設置保釋金的限額的情況。在虛擬庭審中，當法官並沒有被告知死亡相關信息時他們普遍設置額度爲50美元的保釋金，當被告知死亡相關信息時法官判定的保釋金額平均在455美元。
All of this raises an intriguing possibility: if in the future, medicine allows us to know the date of our death with greater clarity (see sidebar: “The day you will die”), then it could change us in more ways than we realise.
所有這一切都提出了一個有趣的可能性：如果在未來，人類可以通過醫學的進步瞭解到準確的死亡日期，那麼這個信息會在更多的我們意識不到的方面影響着我們的生活。
Still, it’s one thing to think about death in the abstract, distant sense, and another to be faced with the possibility of your own happening suddenly today. Hagberg Fisher likens it to when a close friend or family member dies. You might know they are going to die soon, you might try to prepare for it, but when the news hits, there’s a kind of grief that you can’t really get ready for. You can’t understand what it’s like until it happens.
然而，將死亡看作是遙遠的抽象的事情與真切面臨今天就會死亡的可能性是完全不同的。哈格伯格•費舍爾把這種事情類比於一個親密的朋友或家庭成員的死亡。你可能會知道他們會很快死去，你也許會努力準備，但你永遠無法準備好的是當事件發生時所帶來的真正的悲傷。有些事情你無法真正理解，直到它發生。
For Hagberg Fisher, the possibility of death hung over her for nearly a decade. No-one could tell her what the prognosis was or what was making her sick. Often they wouldn’t even say the words “cancer” or “tumour.” When she was re-diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White, the risk of sudden death consumed her. She found herself frozen in yoga poses, afraid to move, lest she bring upon her own death.
對於哈格伯格•費舍爾來說，死亡的可能性已經在她身邊揮之不去將近十年了。很多時候沒有人能告訴她確切的是“癌症”或者“腫瘤”。而當她再次被診斷出患有沃爾夫-帕金森-懷特氏症候羣時，有可能面臨猝死的恐懼席捲了她，在做瑜伽時她幾乎不敢扭動身體，恐懼使她無法行動，唯恐會由此導致死亡。
There are plenty of famous quotes about living like it’s your last day. Steve Jobs once said: “I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.” These quotes might seem cheesy, but Hagberg Fisher says that living in death’s shadow for so long truly has changed her outlook on life. She is adamant about living in the moment. She rarely makes plans beyond a few weeks out.
很多著名的至理名言指導人們珍惜當下。史蒂夫•喬布斯曾經說過：“我每天早上都在問鏡子裏的自己：”如果今天是我生命中的最後一天，我想做我今天要做的事嗎？”當答案是“不”，一連幾天都是這樣，那麼我知道我需要做出改變了。”這些名言聽起來似乎很俗氣，但哈格伯格•費舍爾說，長期在死亡的陰影下生活的確改變了她的人生觀。她堅持活在當下，很少做出幾個星期以外的計劃。
And when she’s laughing, she says she makes sure to take a note of it. “Every time I find myself hysterically laughing I call attention to it, I am experiencing laughter and joy and this is beautiful and I am going to soak it up because I know so well its opposite. The lows and lower and the highs are higher, and the highs are really beautiful.”
當她每次大笑的時候她說自己一定會記下這個時刻。“每一次我發現自己歇斯底里的大笑時，我一定會特別的注意到這個現象，我症狀經歷歡笑和快樂這些美麗的瞬間，我要充分的享受這樣的時刻，因爲我深知不能夠歡笑的痛苦。碰見低點的時候，就會更悲傷，但是碰見高興的時候，就要更高興，因爲這些高興的時候纔是真正美麗的瞬間。”
