The Age of Mystique
　　年齡的秘密
　　Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, itdoesn’t matter.
　　~Mark Twain
　　On my fiftieth birthday, my older daughter gave me a pin thatsaid “Fifty is nifty.” I wore it to work that day, and what fun itwas! All day, people kept saying things to me like, “Anita, youdon’t look fifty,” or “Why, Anita, you can’t be fifty,” and “Weknow you can’t be fifty.”
　　It was wonderful. Now, I knew they were lying, and they knew Iknew, but isn’t that what friends and co-workers are for? To lie toyou when you need it, in times of emergency, like divorce and deathand turning fifty.
　　You know how it is with a lie, though. You hear it often enough,and you begin to think it’s true. By the end of the day, I feltfabulous. I fairly floated home from work. In fact, on the wayhome, I thought: I really ought to dump my husband. After all, thegeezer was fifty-one, way too old for a young-looking gal likeme.
　　Arriving home, I had just shut the front door when the doorbellrang. It was a young girl from a florist shop, bringing birthdayflowers from a friend.
　　They were lovely. I stood in my doorway holding the flowers andadmiring them, and the delivery girl stood there, waiting for atip.
　　She noticed the pin on my jacket and said, “Oh, fifty, eh?”
　　“Yes,” I answered, and waited. I could stand one last complimentbefore my birthday ended.
　　“Fifty,” she repeated. “That’s great! Birthday oranniversary?”
　　~Anita Cheek Milner
　　年齡是關乎意識決定物質的問題。如果你不在乎，那年齡就無關緊要。
　　——馬克?吐溫
　　在我五十歲生日的時候，大女兒送了我一枚胸針，上面寫著“五十真好”。那天我戴著胸針就去了辦公室，并且度過了極為愉快的一天。一整天人們都對我說著同樣的話，“阿妮塔，你看起來完全不像五十歲”，或者“什么，阿妮塔，你怎么可能有五十歲呢”，再或者“我們知道你沒有五十歲”。
　　那真是美妙的一天。我明白他們說的不是真的，而他們也知道我明白這一點，可這不就是好朋友和同事該為你做的嗎？在生活發(fā)生變故時，比如離婚、親人去世，又或是年滿五十歲的時候，你真的需要從他們那里聽到這些善意的謊言。
　　盡管你聽得出來人們說的不是真話。可是謊言重復千遍也會變成真理。聽得多了，我也開始把人們所說的當真。所以那天下班的時候我感覺好極了。輕飄飄的就像在飛一樣。實際上回家的時候我還一路在想：我
　　真應該甩掉我丈夫。畢竟那個家伙已經五十一歲了，和看起來依舊年輕的我站在一起顯得太老了。
　　我前腳回到家里，后腳就聽見門鈴響了。原來是一家花店的小姑娘送花來了。我一個朋友給我送來了祝福。那些花真的很美。我站在門口，拿著那束花細細地欣賞，而那個送花的小姑娘就耐心地站在那里，等我給她小費。
　　這時她注意到我衣服上別著的胸針：“哦，五十，是嗎？”
　　“是啊。”我回答道，心里不由自主地期待她再說點什么。我很樂意在生日這天多聽幾句贊美的話語。
　　“五十，”她重復道，“哇，真了不起！是生日還是結婚紀念日？”
　　——阿妮塔?奇克?米爾納
　　……