Author | Fan Deng Reading · Little Seven Mommy
Anchor | Fan Deng Reading · Smell delight
Interpret the trailer
Meet · Meet your unknown self in the book.
Good evening to all book lovers, welcome to the reading column "Encounter" produced by Fan Deng Reading.
Today, I will give you an interpretation of the work of contemporary writer Cai Chongda - "Skin Bag".
This is a collection of essays with the texture of a novel to read, and it is also a book that "recognizes the heart and recognizes the person".
Beneath the skin, every soul is searching for the meaning of being alive.
But may there be a road under your feet and a light in your heart. Not only will you not lose your hometown, but you will be able to go far away.
In 2012, renowned media personality Choi Chongda arrived in London to attend an event and stopped by the British Museum to visit an exhibition called "living and dying".
In the main exhibition hall, the long booth is covered with a variety of pills and medical equipment, displaying photographs of deceased people at the best or most painful times in their lives.
This made him think of his father, who died of a serious illness, his mother, who took on the heavy responsibility of life, and the playmates when he was a student.
After returning from London, Cai Chongda could not suppress his enthusiasm and began to use his spare time to record the old past on Weibo.
Two years later, he selected 14 of his favorite stories from dozens of more articles and edited them into a volume and published The Skin Bag.
The book uses the most simple language to tell the growth history of the protagonist Black Dog Da and the story that happened around him, conveying an indisputable fact between the lines:
Everyone has unspeakable suffering, and everyone has silent tears.
However, the weak choose to complain, the strong choose to save themselves, and the wise choose to cross.
In their own way, they have lived very different lives.
The weak complain
Hopu is Black Dog's college roommate, and when he first entered college, he was addicted to the musical illusion he created:
Purchased various musical instruments, signed up for different societies, formed a band called "World", and held the first musical performance.
Soon, Houpu became a "campus star", releasing the vitality of youth more freely.
Almost crazy love, changing three girlfriends a week; skipping school becomes a habit, all courses are lit up with red lights...
Naïve, he never realized that the so-called "world" was just an ideal illusion, and it would eventually be shattered in reality.
Until he was ordered to suspend from school, Houpu was still not awake.
He complained about the injustices of the world and felt that he should be the center of the whole world.
He complained about the ups and downs of fate and sensitively resisted all the doubting voices around him.
He attacked the mediocrity of life and made many absurd moves that were inappropriate.
He even called the black dog Da, who was far away in Beijing, several times, to tell him about his plight, accusing everyone of not understanding him:
Parents do not understand their choices, will only keep laughing;
The girlfriend can't see her own heart clearly, thinking it's all crazy nonsense;
Classmates can't understand their own meaning, think it's a fool's dream;
……
Later, under the mediation of his parents, Houpu was arranged to teach in a small village.
The huge difference between the reality of survival and self-expectation is always a cut that Houpu can't get over.
He became ill and eventually chose to leave this world.
In life, we often hear all kinds of complaints:
"Obviously, I have worked very hard, why can't I make money?"
"Why have I done so much that society is so unfriendly to me?"
Those who like to complain always think that everything is difficult, only feel that the whole world is against themselves, even if it is a little unpleasant, the slightest dissatisfaction.
As everyone knows, complaining is the usual trick of the weak, showing unbearable and anger.
Luo Zhenyu said: "Don't complain easily, because once you complain, it is equivalent to labeling yourself incompetent." ”
A person's greatest stupidity is to always complain when things happen.
You know, quiet years are dreams, and carrying weight forward is the norm.
Complaining is the most useless solution.
The strong save themselves
On the third day of black dog Da's birth, because of lack of money and overbirth, his mother was expelled from the hospital and his father was dismissed from public office.
The father, who had lost his job, was depressed and simply locked up at home and did not come out.
During those three years, my mother did not say a word, and she silently supported the whole family alone.
The coal for the fire was borrowed from neighbors, the fish for the meal were begged for by relatives, and the green vegetables on the table were picked up at the market.
Even if it is a difficult day, there will always be a time to come out.
Just like dragging the frail body that had just finished giving birth step by step from Xiamen back to her hometown in southern Fujian, my mother still firmly believed: "Take a few more steps to see, God will always give the way." ”
However, life is like a harsh director, not only like to drink around, but also deliberately add new dramas.
A few years later, his father took the money he had saved as a seafarer in Ningbo to start a business, but he repeatedly failed, and he fell in the courtyard and was paralyzed by a stroke.
Treating his father's illness, hollowing out the bottom of the family, and the heavy responsibility on his mother's shoulders was even heavier:
The father's medicine, the daughter's dowry, the son's tuition, and the family's expenses must be earned every penny and saved in a pen.
Black Dog Da personally watched her put hundreds of pounds of oil barrels horizontally, pushed forward to the right place with less than ninety pounds of body, and sat in the oily mud and cried for a while when she was tired, and then continued.
When she couldn't survive, my mother looked at the bag of rat poison in the drawer.
She is not willing to compromise and concede to life like this, and she is even more unwilling to leave her beloved husband and young children alone.
All the darkest moments of life are preludes to progression, after which the dawn will eventually come.
Under the mother's careful calculation, the family's life is getting better day by day, and I have a little savings.
Ignoring the objections of her relatives, she invited a construction team to raise the house to four floors, fulfilling her husband's dream of building a house.
Hemingway said:
"A man can be destroyed, but he cannot be defeated."
The mother is the one who redeems herself, and she knows that:
The hardships of life can only be tasted by oneself; the difficulties of life must eventually be crossed by oneself.
We often want to find a backer, but no matter how we look for it, we will find that some mountains are full of thorns, and some mountains are full of wild beasts, but we forget that we are the most reliable mountain.
Self-help with joy and sorrow is the most brilliant way to get out of a difficult situation.
Wise men cross people
Someone once asked: "Why is Black Dogda desperately trying to make money?" ”
In the book, the author gives the answer bluntly: because of poverty.
The family suffered frequent misfortunes, and the black dog Da resolutely became the "head of the family", supporting himself with responsibility to study hard, enter the university, and lead his family to live a good life.
The experience of Black Dog Da is the author's realism.
Poverty, poverty, not being able to make ends meet... These words accompanied Cai Chongda's growth.
Fortunately, he has been studying well, loves writing, was admitted to the Normal College, went to Beijing alone, was admitted as an in-depth reporter of the "New Weekly", and his life was changed in the continuous grinding.
After that, at the age of 24, he became the editor-in-chief of the news edition of Weekend Pictorial, the director of reporting for the Chinese edition of GQ at the age of 27, and the editor-in-chief of China Newsweek at the age of 30.
Later, he wrote about the experiences carved in his bones and published "Skin Bag" to realize the ultimate meaning of writing:
Let yourself and others see more people, see more possibilities of the world, and let everyone experience life experience as complete as possible.
As he himself said:
"I expect to live more authentically and honestly, to explain and even like every part of myself that goes up and down.
I want to know how to deal with and appreciate all kinds of desires, all kinds of ugliness and beauty of human nature, and find the best way to get along with them. ”
Only by seeing oneself can we see the larger world; only by seeing each other can we warm more people.
After gaining fame, Cai Chongda returned to his hometown of Dongshi and established the "Leather Bag Literature Award" at his alma mater to encourage and drive the creative passion of more students, and to commend and inspire outstanding literary creation achievements.
He also transformed his old house into a "mother's house" library, so that more children no longer have the regret of not seeing books.
If self-help is a skill, then crossing people is a pattern.
Under the midst of suffering, no one's life is easy.
Some people only care about their own business; some people, while pulling themselves, illuminate the way of others.
Tagore said:
"The world kisses me with pain, but I sing in return."
This is to see the truth of life, still willing to use their own light to bring warmth and help to others.
Illuminating others can also warm yourself; to complete others is also to achieve yourself.
Crossing people is the highest realm of crossing oneself.
Write at the end
"Skin Bag" is like a microcosm of a small society.
Every story is an extraordinary experience, and behind every experience is a different kind of life.
There's a saying that goes something like this:
"Fate always has a thousand ways to make you pierce your heart, and life has a thousand opportunities to make you sober in an instant." 」
The weak who choose to complain, only care about self-hatred and self-pity, it is difficult to have a happy ending;
The strong who strive to save themselves will always be strong in their hearts and will eventually survive the hardships of life;
Wise people who make every effort to cross people know how to help each other, and in the end, they all achieve each other.
Sweet and sour is life, and all kinds of tribulations are growth.
No matter how much hardship life has given you and me, don't forget to cultivate a beautiful skin bag, sublimate an interesting soul, and be a true wise person.
Don't complain, don't give up, don't compromise, and the good will come unexpectedly.
Click "Watching" and encourage the book friends.
Author | Little Seven Mommy, one hand in the workplace and the other hand to raise a baby, the heart to the sun, and strive to grow.
Column Director | Come slowly
Typography | Zheng to the north
Music | Zhao Haiyang - three inches of paradise