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J. K. Galbraith once said, "Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable." He could have been speaking of the decisions we keep putting off about how we pay for future care of the elderly. Yet the urgent need for decisions was underlined this week by the Office for National Statistics. It revealed that already one in six of us is over 65, with 430,000 over 90. That compares with just 13,000 nonagenarians in 1911. But finding resources is not the only thing we should think about. Every day now we seem to hear about instances of neglect or worse on the part of some carers.
J.k.加爾布雷斯曾說過：“政治不是有關(guān)可能性的藝術(shù)，它要么給人帶來災難，要么讓人難以接受。”也許加爾布雷斯談論的是我們遲遲不肯做出為年長者將來的護理進行開銷的決定。不過，本周國家統(tǒng)計局強調(diào)了做出這一決定的緊迫性。因為該局發(fā)布的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，有六分之一的人口年齡在65歲以上，其中90歲以上的有43萬人。相比之下，1911年90歲以上的老人僅有1.3萬。但找到更多護理人員資源并非我們唯一考慮的事情。現(xiàn)在我們似乎每天都能聽到護理人員玩忽職守或比這更嚴重的事情。
What is going wrong? Last week in Newcastle someone told me about her elderly father. He's in his 80s and receives care at home. The care is good. However, the carer has the greatest difficulty completing her tasks because her elderly client wants her to stop and talk to him all the time. Could this be a clue to the one thing needful? Caring is more and more task-focused with little time for chatting. Yet the talking is valuable in itself, and in conversation, other things are learnt, which if not acted on lead to bigger problems. But job descriptions increasingly squeeze out the possibility of simply talking. It looks like dead or wasted time. Then disasters follow. Christians are reminded of the importance of making this sort of time for others in two ways.
到底哪兒出了問題？上周在紐卡斯特，一位女士把她年邁的父親的情況告訴了我。老父親已是80多歲高齡，在家接受護理。護理人員干得很出色，但她完成工作時遇到的最大難題便是老父親一直希望她能放下手頭的活兒，陪他說說話。這有可能為我們需要的答案提供一條線索嗎？護理工作越來越講求護理人員對工作的專注度，因此，護理人員幾乎沒有時間與客戶聊天。但談話本身是具有價值的，并且在交談中，護理人員與客戶能相互了解到其他東西，但如果不對其加以限制，這就會引發(fā)更大的問題。在有關(guān)護理工作的描述中，閑聊的可能性越來越小，因為這樣的聊天看似無關(guān)緊要實則能發(fā)現(xiàn)致命的問題，抑或這看起來是在浪費時間。閑聊之后，也許客戶會發(fā)現(xiàn)護理人員資質(zhì)不夠。有人提醒基督徒可以用兩種方式騰出時間與他人交談的重要性。
There is the example of Jesus. He engages in conversation with those he helps, because that is an important part of the care. As he talks he helps others understand why a need has to be met and he gives confidence to those who are helped. But there is a second way in which Christians are actively trained to make time for one another. It's incorporated into the principal act of worship, the communion service. Just before receiving the sacrament of bread and wine, the priest invites the congregation to share the peace of Christ with one another by shaking hands with those around them. It's a short, unscripted moment when the flow of the liturgy is put on hold and people take time out to notice and greet one another. And what is done in the context of the liturgy, breaks the ice for a conversation to be picked up over coffee afterwards. The exchange of peace and the after service gathering is a way the Church fashions its members in the importance of simply making time for somebody else, and to talk. There must surely be a way of enabling this to happen again in those institutions and at those points where the elderly are cared for and where time for conversation is not always valued. The danger is that in pursuit of what is most cost-effective, such time is more likely to be factored out than factored in.
