Tuesdays with Morrie (part 3)

I am reading Tuesdays with Morrie, written by Mitch Albom. Doubleday, a division of Random House Inc. published it in 2007.

Precis

  

Tuesdays with Morrie tells readers worldwide about the end of a life of a professor named Morris Schwartz. The story is told by one of Morrie’s previous students, whom he taught years before he was diagnosed with ALS. After graduating from college, Mitch experienced the death of a loved one. This loss led him to stop pursuing his dream of becoming a musician. Instead he became a columnist who found more importance in his work than in the relationships that he had before. This included his relationship with Morrie. 16 years after graduation, he recognized Morrie on his TV set, while he was being interviewed about his upcoming death. Stirred by seeing him again, Mitch paid weekly visits to his old professor- which they referred to as their classes. The subject of each class was the meaning of life, and each meeting and discussion Morrie shared his perspectives and experiences with regrets, death, family, emotions, aging, money, love, forgiveness and reflections on our culture. The book is constructed in the form of a class- with each chapter flowing as if the book were a class itself- it began with the curriculum, followed by the syllabus and the discussions, and ended with “graduation”- Morrie’s death. 

Quotes and Responses

“Here’s what I mean by building your own little sub-culture,” Morrie said. “I don’t mean you disregard every rule of your community. I don’t go around naked, for example. I don’t run through red lights. The little things, I can obey. But the big things- how we think, what we value- those you must choose yourself. You can’t let anyone- or any society- determine those for you. Take my condition. The things I am supposed to be embarrassed about now- not being able to walk, not being able to wipe my ass, waking up some mornings wanting to cry- there is nothing innately embarrassing or shaming about them”

Morrie questions dominant practices of the larger culture that we live in throughout the book- and he recognizes that the way he thinks is different than most people. Mitch shows how most people, including himself, abide by the norms of society without thinking twice about it. Morrie relates this questioning of dominant social practices to himself in his dying stage and recognizes that he feels no shame in the decay of his body, although people usually do. Morrie constantly draws connections between old people and babies- both are pampered and are shown attention and love. Instead of feeling shameful that he must depend on others, he transitioned this feeling into a feeling of acceptance- and feels pleasure in the care he receives. 

“It’s natural to die,” he said again. “The fact that we make such a big hullabaloo over it is all because we don’t see ourselves as part of nature. We think because we’re human we’re something above nature.”

Unlike many people, as death drew closer, Morrie grew more accepting and less afraid of it. He says that we believe we’re something more than nature- as if a higher power. I thought this was an important point, and could explain the destruction of our planet (along with greed, money, power, ignorance, etc.) So many of the decisions that we make about how to live are influenced by our present needs and desires. Little thought goes into how future generations or even the animals and plants, who share the earth with us, will be affected by the decisions we have made.

“Death ends a life, not a relationship”

Morrie tried to explain, in simplest terms possible, that his death would not mean the end of the bond that he and Mitch shared. Morrie will continue to live on in Mitch’s memories and the influences that Morrie had upon him.

Its easy to understand that a life often leaves a legacy when the person who dies is someone famous like John Lennon or Michael Jackson but I know that I will always remember my mother, even if she is not remembered by many others. Like Mitch, I learned valuable lessons from my mother that I still carry with me. Even though I didn’t keep a tape recorder or a journal of notes where I recorded my mother’s words, I have photos that allow me to remember who she was and what she was like before she got sick.