TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE: A Review

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Tuesdays with Morrie is a book written by Mitch Albom about an old man, a young man and life’s greatest lesson. No books were required, yet many topics were covered, including love, work, community, family, aging, forgiveness, and finally death. The last lecture was brief, only a few words. A funeral was held in lieu of graduation. The author used to be friends with his professor during his college days. He rediscovered him in the last month’s of the older man’s life when he was dying. The professor was afflicted with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a brutal unforgiving illness of the neurological system. In one of his visits, they agreed to meet on a Tuesday, just as they used to in college. Their rekindled relationship turned into one final “class”; lessons how to live, with one student, he. During the early stages of the disease, there was much adjustment on Morrie, the professor. First, when he was backing the car out of the garage, he could barely push the brakes. That was the end of his driving. He kept tripping so he purchased a cane. That was the end of his walking free. He went for his regular swim but couldn’t undress himself. So he hired a home care worker who helped him in and out of the pool, and in and out of his bathing suit. In the locker room, the other swimmers pretended not to stare and that was the end of his privacy. During his final college course, he confided to students that the course, (Social Psychology class which he has been teaching for 20 years,) he may not be able to finish for he was afflicted with a fatal illness and that he may not able to live to finish the semester. That was the end of his secret. The author on rekindling the friendship chronicled their meetings with a taped recorder, accounting their last thesis together. The book turned out a blessing for both parties, the author learning the lessons on how to live his life, while the professor benefiting from the advance payment for the book which has helped footed his enormous hospital bill. The first page has this write-up. To some other persons, there is one worthy individual who shaped one’s view of life. He can be old or young, rich or poor, somebody or nobody. Anybody who existed in your life and give a vivid impression of what is to expect from life as you mature. They may give you direct and indirect answers or no answers at all which lead you to more profound searching of what’s really in store and why? The author was lucky he has a professor mentoring him up to the professor’s death. The final output was a long term paper, a book he has shared with us. I have picked up from the book many worthy passages. Readers may not be fond of reading an entire book so I have it presented through quotes which are actually words to live by. Hope it will touch your heart as much as it has touched mine. INTERESTING INSIGHTS FROM THE BOOK Quotable quotes from the Professor and the Author [b]“Do I wither up and disappear, or do I make the best of my time left? “Study me in my slow and patient demise. Watch what happens to me. Learn with me”[/b] The word dying is not synonymous with “useless”. I’m going to live – or at least try to live – the way I want, with dignity, with courage, with humor, with composure. What a waste when people say all those wonderful things together, and the dead never got to hear any of it. [b]“Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do” “Accept the past as past, without denying it or discarding it”; “Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive theirs”; “Don’t assume that it’s too late to get involved.”[/b] People see me as a bridge. I’m not as alive as I used to be, but I’m not yet dead. I’m sort of …. In-between. I’m on the last great journey here – and people want me to tell them what to pack. Dying is only one thing to be sad over. Living unhappily is something else. So many of the people who come to visit me are unhappy. What is expected of me versus what I want for myself. Tension of opposites means Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn’t. You take certain things for granted . A tension of opposites is like a pull on a rubber band. Most of us live in the middle. It can also be compared to a wrestling match. The side that always wins is the side where there is love. So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they are chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. When one day someone wipes our bottom, think of it that we got to be a baby one more time. It is a unique way of looking at it. I can sit with my dwindling days and look at what I think is important in my life. I have both the time - and the reason – to do that. Now that I’m suffering, I feel closer to people who suffer than I ever did before. The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. All the best,Agihcam