oh，nice。
Seeing these two words, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
Isn't it --
After reading it once, it is forever engraved in the mind and lingers. Every time you talk to someone online about something happy, it is always appropriate.
In this fast-paced traffic era, many memes are all the rage, but it is difficult to find a source.
You just remember, I've seen it, I know, I've used it. But little is known about who he is, where he comes from, what stories he has.
Remember exaggerated expressions, forget heavy stories.
The life of Grandpa Nice is more sad than we can imagine.
Grandpa Nice's original name is not Nice, his name is Michael Rosen, he is a fairy tale writer, so far 76 years old, published more than 140 fairy tale books, well-known in the Uk. Rosen's most famous fairy tale is called "We're Going to Catch Bears."
The fairy tale's phrase goes like this:
"We're going to catch a bear, we're going to catch a big one."
The weather is so good, nothing to be afraid of.
Oops, weeds, tall swaying weeds.
It can't fly above, but it can't drill through below.
Oh my God, I had to go forward with a hard scalp.
Oh, the river, the cool and deep river, can't fly above, can't drill below.
Oh my God, I had to go forward with a hard scalp. ”
Extremely colloquial and lifelike, without too many causes and effects, without princes and princesses and evil witches.
Rosen's story, with a distinct personal style, is the first perspective plus a steaky description of the environment, supplemented by a large number of rhymes, tailored for innocent and romantic children who do not have much literacy.
As soon as the fairy tale was published, it immediately swept the UK, quickly broke the circle, won numerous awards, and children loved it, and in 2014, it also won the Guinness Book of Laws world record for the "largest reading class".
Throughout the ages, great fairy tale writers have generally shared two common qualities:
The first is that they are very good at seeing the world from the perspective of children;
The second is that most of their own childhoods are not very happy.
Rosen was born into a Jewish family in london's East End, where his parents were communists, which had a big impact on his childhood.
In the 1940s, World War II, the largest, bloodiest and most human-killing outbreak on Earth to date.
During this period, the Jews of Europe suffered a massacre that had never been seen in ancient times, and Rosen's grandfather was captured in the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp and nearly died.
This history of oppression flowed silently to Rosen.
When he came into the world in 1946, Jews were still discriminated against in Europe, and with the formation of a bipolar pattern, the ideological confrontation between the East and the West became increasingly fierce.
As the only Jewish communist family within a 10-mile radius, when he was a child, rosen's children always squeezed him consciously or unconsciously, such as asking him: "(Your parents believe in communism) Why don't you live in Russia?" ”
Asked Rosen confused.
"I don't stop thinking about why I want to live in Russia."
The jealousy and prejudice of the other races in Europe against the Jews, passed on to their descendants impartially, rosen was not happy at what should have been a carefree age.
In 1962, the Rosens were evicted from their apartments as the Conservatives ended rent controls. In the end, he had to live in a very simple hut in the suburbs.
Later, Rosen attended the local Watford Grammar School, and even when he got to campus, all kinds of nonsense discrimination continued endlessly.
The children in the school used to say something demeaning to the Jews in front of him:
"Where to hide the money from the Jews?" (alluding to Jewish snobbery and grabbing too much property) under a bar of soap? ”
They pretended to ask Rosen, and then laughed.
The evil of children is sometimes more piercing.
In the isolation and ridicule of the children around him, Rosen grew up little by little, and those who were angry and helpless gradually evolved into rebellion and the pursuit of equality.
Growing up, Rosen switched to several high schools before college, and in the process, he gradually fell in love with reading and writing, and showed great talent.
It's not just about interest, it's also about the family atmosphere, and as a child, one of Rosen's father's favorite things to do was to tell children fairy tales and recite Shakespeare's poems.
This kind of education made Rosen's mind extremely sensitive and rich, and the pressure from the outside forced him to turn his attention inwardly, to the spiritual world.
After leaving grammar school, Rosen wanted to become a doctor because a friend told him that as a doctor, he could continue to learn English, history and French, and do a lot of things related to science.
But after a year in medical school, Rosen couldn't go on, and he found that reality was still different from what he thought.
Scalpel, the general teacher, and Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet are too far behind.
So he resolutely chose to quit school and was admitted to Oxford University instead to study English literature.
This experience will make everyone think of a person - Mr. Lu Xun.
It seems that "abandoning medicine and following the text" is the standard for top writers.
During college, Rosen was immersed in the ocean of literature, very happy, sometimes upside down stories, sometimes writing poetry, sometimes playing miniseries, and the energy was frightening.
His personality has also been liberated to the greatest extent, and his sharp edges and corners have gradually been revealed in his extravagant talent.
In 1965, the Vietnam War entered a white-hot stage, the anti-war in Europe and the United States became more and more popular, and the people advocated non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries, withdrawing troops from Vietnam, and quickly escaping from this bottomless war quagmire. Rosen gladly supported, protesting very forcefully against the Vietnam War.
He was then thrown into prison for his first taste of bars.
But such an experience did not force him to restrain his edges and smooth out the edges.
Later, he was arrested for protesting racial discrimination.
Speaking of these years later, he said:
"It was a time of great change for the world.
People rose up to demand freedom and rights — whether african-Americans in the United States, all the peoples of the former Soviet Union and neighboring countries, or many African countries that are still under European rule. ”
Every time he speaks up for the weak, the sad fragments of his childhood will come to his eyes, and the pain of the past tells him that he must speak up, must fight, must be fearless.
After graduating from university, Rosen entered the prestigious BBC job, but such an iron rice bowl did not suit him.
Rosen disagreed with the TV station in many of the program production concepts.
Although he was in charge of children's programs, Rosen felt that the educational model recognized by those on the TV station was extremely sour, and they did not know it.
The TV station believes that Rosen is really disobedient to discipline, and everything loves to stick to his own position, which is very "difficult".
So in his third year at the BBC, Rosen was fired, and the tv station gave the reason: "You are more suitable for freelance work." ”
"They said it would be better if I did freelancing. I learned later because they thought I had dangerous, subversive views. Rosen said.
The BBC's prudence has produced a fairy tale master.
After leaving the BBC, Rosen began his own fairy tales, and in 1974 he published his first collection of children's poetry, Do Your Own Thing.
It was humorous and funny, with a kind tone like an old friend, and soon captured countless children.
Since then, it has been out of control.
A few years later, "We're Going to Catch the Bear" was published, successfully breaking the circle, not only selling the copyright but also being translated into several different languages, circulating all over Europe, and Rosen was on fire.
In the 1990s, Rosen pursued his M.A. and Ph.D. in Children's Literature and Writing. After graduation, Rosen became a teacher, teaching master's programs in the education sector and teaching writing techniques of children's literature to teachers and teacher librarians.
Everything looked good, but in 1999, bad news almost crushed Rosen.
Rosen has 5 children, of whom he loves his second son, Eddie, whom he calls the "muse" of creation, always gives him a lot of inspiration and inspiration.
One morning in 1999, when he went to his son's bedside and was ready to say good morning to him, he found that his son's body was very cold and stiff, and he trembled and reached out to probe the child's sniffles, and found that it was unusually quiet, without a hint of wind and grass.
After a few minutes, he realized that the child was dead, only 18 years old.
This incident was like a thunderbolt for Rosen, directly giving birth to his most famous work, "The Book of Sorrows".
In the book, he plainly recalls the bits and pieces he spent with his children.
No hysteria, no collapse venting.
Just memories, reproduced little by little.
Thinking about how he spent time as a father with his children's growth.
Take a bath in a wooden barrel, read a book under the bedtime lamp, and play ball with your friends.
Only the last page suddenly became blank, abruptly stopped, like the life of a son who died suddenly.
"Sometimes, grief is boundless, everywhere, nowhere to escape."
"My saddest thing is when I think of my son Eddie, who died; I loved him very, very much, but he died anyway."
This is the heaviest and simplest love of a father.
He was sad and grief-stricken and could not save his son.
In the years to come, Rosen still created fairy tales, through words, to pin and vent his love for Eddie.
Later, when he remembered his son, Rosen said: "He will always be 18 years old, unlike me, the old man, who is getting old every year." ”
On Youtube, he has a channel dedicated to storytelling, the earliest of which dates back 14 years.
The Nice video, which is used as an emoji by many people, is from a video from 13 years ago, he imitates the movements and expressions of eating potatoes to remind children not to be burned by hot food.
On YouTube, the total number of views of these videos is close to 100 million.
In the minds of many children, he is an elder, an old friend, and a grandfather-like being.
In September 2020, when Rosen uploaded a video of "I Got Covid-19," many people worried about him.
Rosen, 75, is battling the coronavirus.
During the 48 days of treatment, he was given three critical illness notices, blinded in one eye, unable to hear in his ears, and had to rely on a ventilator for a long time to maintain his physical function.
In the end, the tenacious Rosen survived.
Not only that, but he also wrote two books about his duel with the new crown.
One is called "Diverse Love" and the other is called "Hold On, My Crutch."
The former is grateful for the care and care he has received from many readers and medical staff when he is ill; the latter is about his own recovery process, after recovering from the disease, it took him 3 months to get up and walk again.
After being discharged from the hospital, he returned to the school to give a lecture to the students, and when he talked about how he felt about the new crown pneumonia, he said:
"I felt like I was going to die in a few days."
After saying that, he laughed loudly.
Romain Rolland said that the real warrior loves life after seeing the essence of life.
Many times, suffering comes for no reason.
It is fate, it is a coincidence, it is difficult to reverse, it is immutable.
Just like Rosen's life experience, childhood discrimination, middle-aged loss of children, old age to get new crown.
Fate was particularly cruel to him.
However, under such a tempering test, it shows the brilliance of its human nature.
As a human being, some pain is inevitable, and the important thing is not how to avoid it, but how to face it.
Don't complain, don't be resentful.
Face him, let go of him, and live your life optimistically.
A lot of times, when you do, then through the dark tunnel, you will find —
You have not only redeemed yourself, but you have also helped others.
Life is good, as long as you don't mourn suffering, you will gain the strength to get back on your feet.
Author | Xie Bian, a dog that kept running, was gone.
Image | Originated from the Internet, if there is infringement, please contact to delete.