A TV program

Last night, I watched a TV program about the old people's brain. Japan is known to have the highest rate of long-live people ( it also holds the record of highest rate of suicide:) . The researchers studied the brains and lives of some old people of about one hundred years old in Japan. The conclusion is rather simple as we expected: the more you use it, the more you brain is healthier and younger.

What moves me is not the result but the life stories of these people. One man is now 98. But his brain is about 20 years younger than his age. He had two children, one son and one daughters. Both got brain fever when they were little and therefore couldn't communicate properly. He devoted himself to teach them at home. A few years later, at the age of 47, he put his own money in opening a daycare for those kids who are interllecturally disabled. It became his career and passion ever since. To help them develop, he invented thousands of toys and tools. He learned Korean before. Now he wished he could use his experience to help disabled kids in China. So at the age of 95, he studied Chinese. Recently, he did visit China. He used his invented toys to play with Chinese kids. When he asked to give a speach, he insisted in using Chinese. His pronuciation was so unclear that a translator had to step in to help. Later on, he also joked about the translation from Chinese to Chinese, but he said:"you know, I can't stop trying". Sadly, his wife died earlier. And even more sad, his two children both died in 2002 and 2003, respectively. What might seem devastating to others became his motivation to live. He said:" they both died in their fifties. So I took their power to live on. People asked me how I can handle it. You know, I have the power of two fifty-year-old inside me." He lives on his own, doing everything except cooking. Every week, a Chinese girl comes to help him with his Chinese.

There is another guy who is now 103. At his seventies, he began to run and took part in marathon. He won many medals. But at his eighties, his wife died, which had a great impact on him. He lost interests in everything including running. All day long, he just stayed at his room doing nothing. His health began to fail. There were a time when he couldn't even walk. It went on like this for a few years. To help him, his son and daughter-in-law took him out to the field to excercise. Once he began to run, he found his life back again. He gradually recovered. When he was 99, he began to run marathon again. He was the oldest contestant.

Another woman began to learn peotry at the age of 90. Everyday she reads newspaper for a few hours and composes poems. Her poems were published, which covers a variety of topoics, for example the mission to Mars.

We may be just ordinary persons. But it's good to have some one we can look up to, especially some one who is this old and just couldn't give up living.