1. WORDS TO LIVE BY---
Author/Physician Shigeaki Hinohara
By JUDITH KAWAGUCHI
Japan's 97-year-old physician educator offers
advice for seniors ~ Japan Times
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 . A fter 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 "Living Long, Living Good" that has sold more than
1.2 million copies. A s 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 " A bt 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. A ll 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 A um 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 Duke University
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.
The Japan Times:
(C) All rights reserved
2. Subject: Aruki Tsuzukeyou (Keep Walking)
After watching this video we should not complain of our life - - -This
young female is just grateful to be alive!- - - . Beautiful and
wonderful personality. Great singer also.
http://www.facebook.com/l/3AQC3ZBIgAQCoV4me3w29Gw5BGfAPskk7wnzQ3kQWDJrmpQ/www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=q6_Zzw3SPS4
*FROM FACEBOOK
२५ सितंबर २०११ 
