英国新闻听力 不那么孤独的生活（在线收听）

Good morning. A song which has moved three generations now since it was first released by the Beatles in 1966 is Eleanor Rigby with its haunting line “Ah, look at all those lonely people”. And that, it could be said, is what BBC North are doing today with a series of programmes under the heading “A life less lonely” together with the engagement of 20 charities up and down the country.

Loneliness is not just confined to the elderly. There is the loneliness of the adolescent, especially if they come from a troubled home, or are finding it difficult to make friends at school. There is the terrible loneliness of bereavement. Someone suddenly finding no one there after years together with a partner. There is the loneliness of a person critically ill in hospital, cut off from the life they have known and fearful about the future. Then there are some people who have always felt alone like the poet R.S.Thomas. He wrote some lovely poems to his wife of 50 years but when she died and he was asked if he was now lonely he replied “Isn’t one lonely within marriage”?

So many forms of loneliness but we cannot ignore the fact that we are most of us are living longer now and there are an increasing number of elderly living on their own who do not see anyone from one week’s end to another-not just women, for a recent study said that more than a million men over the age of 50 suffer from a sense of isolation. I find it very poignant when I go through my address system on the computer and have to delete a name. Some people reach the stage when the names of all their friends have been deleted. Overall some 10% of people over the age of 65 say they are lonely most or all of the time. All this is intensified at this time of the year. Priests know that Christmas can be tinged with some heart rending conversations about the pain of loneliness

Existentialists used to stress that as human beings it is our lot to be fundamentally alone. There is no escape, and certainly this tendency has been reinforced by the rampant individualism that has dominated European thought and life for 3 centuries. But I prefer the African notion of Ubuntu, that life is essentially interpersonal. We become and remain persons in and through our relation to other persons. Hence those great words addressed to Adam in the Garden of Eden “It is not good for man to be alone.”

Mother Theresa who did so much for the destitute poor on the streets of Calcutta once said “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” Charities and voluntary organisations do much to help overcome this. Even if we have not able to volunteer ourselves we can I think all do more to connect with other people, a phone call, a visit, a greeting in the street, a smile across the counter. For we belong together and it is not good for man-or woman-to be alone.

早上好，在披头士1966年发布的歌曲“Eleanor Rigby”自问世后感动了三代人，这首歌中有句歌词是“噢，看这些孤独的人吧！”因此，BBC节目今天开始和全国各地20个慈善机构一起推出名为“不那么孤独的生活”系列节目。

孤独不是老年人的专利，青少年也会孤独，尤其是问题家庭的孩子，或者在学校难以交到朋友的青少年，也有可怕的丧亲之痛的孤独，有的人发现多年来找不到一个伙伴，一个人重病住院时也会很孤独，这些人平时所熟知的生活被切断，为未来忧心忡忡。也有像诗人R.S.托马斯那样总是感到孤独的人，他在50年间给妻子写了一些可爱的诗作，当妻子去世时，有人问他现在是否感到孤独，他回答道，“难道婚姻内就不孤独吗？”

所以说存在各种各样的孤独，但我们不能忽略的事实是，我们大多数人现在寿命都更长，有越来越多的独居老人一星期都见不到其他人，不仅仅是老年女性，最近一份研究称有100多万50岁以上的老年男子都有孤独感。每当我浏览电脑中的地址列表，必须要删除一个名字时，我感到特别痛心。有的人甚至到了这样的境地，他们所有朋友的名字都被删除。总的来说，在65岁以上年龄的老人中，大约10%的人说大多数时间或一直都感到孤独。尤其是一年的这个时候更为孤独，牧师们知道，圣诞节会有关于孤独之痛的令人伤心的谈话。

存在主义者一直强调说，人类从根本来说是孤独的，这是我们的命运。我们无法逃脱，当然，这一趋势被影响欧洲思想和生活300年的势不可挡的个人主义所强化。但我更喜欢非洲的人性观念，即生活从根本上来说是人际关系。通过与他人建立关系，我们成为人并保持人的本性。因此上帝在伊甸园对亚当说，“男人孤单是不对的”。

曾大力帮助过加尔各答街头赤贫者的特蕾莎修女说，“孤独和不被需要的感觉是最可怕的贫困”。慈善机构和志愿者组织就是在尽力克服这样的感觉，即使我们自己无法做志愿者，但我想我们可以努力和他人交往，一个电话，一次访问，街头的打招呼，街角的微笑。因为我们属于彼此，无论男人还是女人，孤独都是不好的。