tuesdays with Morrie

Genre         : Non-fiction/Self help

Author        :  Mitch Albom

The true story of Mitch Albom's meetings with his mentor Morrie Schwartzs on Tuesdays . 'Tuesday people', they call themselves! 

My first thought when I finished this book was that, if you stretched it, it would run into huge volumes. I am not sure if the messages  are better conveyed directly as in this book, or wrapped up in nice little stories like Paulo Coelho does. Drive them home the best way possible!

Morrie who taught sociology, was Mitch's favorite teacher back in 1979 at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachussets. Brandeis University was then a melting pot of  cultures and ethnicities in the backdrop of the Vietnam war.  

In August1994 Morrie was diagnosed with amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a terminal illness that melt your nerves like wax working its way from legs upward. 

Mitch finds that his mentor is dying through Ted Koppel's ABC-TV's show Nightline.  Koppel went ahead and did two more shows with how Morrie dealt with death. 

Mitch who had by then abandoned his dreams to be a musician and is now a successful sports writer, flies to meet Morrie for the first time in sixteen years, and continues to visit him each Tuesday to sit by him and talk. Morrie who is withering away day by day and fast, gives him lessons on a list of topics concerning death that completes life:

Death

Fear

Aging

Greed

Marriage

Family

Society

Forgiveness

A meaningful life

By the potency of the questions Mitch asks, it is obvious that his teacher had done his mentoring well back in the seventies. 

Morrie by then had gathered the courage to look death in the eye, and was preparing to leave the world with dignity.

"Do what Buddhists do", he says, "Every day have a little bird on your shoulder that asks, 'Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?"

As the weeks progress the disease consumes two-thirds of  Morrie, who learns to accept and even enjoy the dependency. Accepting is about knowing that you deserve. 'To give as an adult and take as a child!'

His very interesting perspective on youth is that 'there is misery in being young', that one should embrace ageing. 

Stephen Hawking who suffered from ALS lived with a hole in his throat, spoke through a computer synthesizer, typed using eyes as a sensor. Morrie did not want such a life. For Morrie living means that he can be responsive to the other person. He wanted to emote, feel an talk.

His mantra, "Love each other or die."

You don't have to dive deep to find pearls of wisdom in this book. It is there in every page!

Mitch Albom is an American author, screenwriter, dramatist, journalist radio and television broadcaster, and musician. He is a columnist for the Detroit Free Press. His best sellers include Tuesdays with Morrie, The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Have a Little Faith, For One More Day.

This is an article Mitch Albom wrote for the Detroit Free Press shortly after Morrie’s death in 1995.