Tuesdays with Morrie illustrates a story of great friendship between a man and professor, Morrie Schwartz. The story describes themes of Love, compassion, death and many more. Morrie’s life relates to us the themes of love, compassion, and wisdom has led a responsible life filled with lots of happiness until the very last breath. The story brings to our attention a strong connection between the Morrie and Mitch that was lost for years. However, neither of the two gentlemen forgot this great bond of friendship. The relationship became live at a critical moment when Morrie discovered that he had suffered ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) a killer disease that left him with few months to live (Albom, 35). Morrie, therefore, initiated a class with Mitch, a class termed by many as the last class of his life. From the title ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ Mitch spend every Tuesday of the fourteen weeks of Morrie’s life. The objective was for Mitch to learn and understand wisdom, compassion, and values that governed Morrie’s life.
The weekly program comprised of in-depth lectures and discussions on all that life entailed right from when one was born to when he/she kisses the world goodbye. There were a series of meaningful lessons and lunch breaks. There are a couple of taking away traits from the story such as mutual respect that formed a mighty pillar in this friendship. Morrie demonstrated the wisdom of a higher echelon. He indescribably enjoyed the simple life experiences, embraced and loved the simple things that life brought to him. From his story, we learn that we can only experience the beauty of life by demonstrating love, understanding and most important value the simple aspect of life. People learn things in different ways, so this essay will focus on the theme of death as captured in the story along with the teaching concerning this.
On the deathbed, Morrie reflects on kind of life he has been living and shares meaningful ways concerning the purpose for which we live. Among some of the most powerful messages conveyed by Morrie explains how life does not possess with it a greater or chuckle some meaning. This is ironic when we reflect the messages on how we should enjoy simple things in life and how he enjoyed the simplest things in life. Additionally, we find the meaning of life in some of the things that hurt us. He shares that we discover the purpose for which we live when we embrace what life presents to use rather than wishing for something different.
The most potent message from this story is the power of acceptance. His emphasis on recognition is more powerful to know the meaning of life than to care for and show empathy to people around us. Acceptance is very difficult especially to those going through tough times however through his life we learn to eliminate suffering by acceptance. When we read the story, we expect Morrie to be suffering, but he is not because he had cultivated acceptance. He is faced with discomfort and extreme pain but still feels and demonstrates love, gratitude, and joy. This gives life and death a whole lot of meaning.
We are all going to die someday. However, not everyone agrees or accepts that death is unavoidable. From this story, we encounter some important quotes on death. What are some of the things that suddenly become more important to people diagnosed with terminal illnesses? What are the things that grow less valuable? What are these things that we are likely to value or not value when we learn that we are going to die soon? Morrie gives us an incredible response to these questions. Morrie Schwartz realizes that family, forgiveness, relationships, gratitude, love, and joy are the most significant things in life. He also comes to terms with the realization that publishing books and making money were important then but become meaningless towards the end.
Death is a terrifying thing. However, it does not have much effect because death is not always with people. But when it comes, then we cease to exist. Basically, death becomes of not so much concern to the living and the dead. According to Morrie death can be evil because death one ceases to live. It implies that there exists no love, compassion, material things or nothing. Death presents no value to humankind, positive or negative. However, to close relatives, it carries all the negative traits while to enemies; it may bear some element of positivity.
Morrie explains to Mitch about the benefits of acceptance with regard to death. One message that stood out from Morrie was ‘Once you learn how to die, you learn to live.’ Majority refuse to believe that death is inevitable and that denies them the opportunity to live life to the fullest (Albom, 44). Most of us assume that we will not die and do not even want to think for a second about death. This makes us suffer so much when on deathbeds. He explains that we live our lives sleepwalking, we are barely aware of how people live their lives.
Additionally, Morrie explains to Mitch how people start regretting things or how they should have lived their lives when they become closer to death. We, therefore, learn that when we accept that we will die someday, we learn how to live the way we so want without having to regret in the future. Morrie received his situation and welcomed the fact that he was going to die. So he chose to make the best of his life. Mitch, for instance, started regretting why he did not keep in touch with Morrie. However, when they meant a few months before Morrie’s death, he learned how Morrie had embraced positivity, demonstrated love, compassion and showed gratitude. Through Morrie’s death, Mitch learned how to live life to the fullest.
Dealing with death can be extremely hard especially when it falls on our families or whenever we are in situations such as that of Morrie. We handle death based on our personal and religious believes that why we grieve differently. When a person suffers a terminal illness, they tend to embrace forgiveness, spend more time with loved ones and try to take part in their favorite activities. Those that die suddenly do not have the opportunity to forgive or spend time with their families. According to Morrie death is seen as sad by a family that has lost a loved one. Some also see death as relief in as much as they feel worried about it because the dead had suffered a lot. So whenever we accept death, we begin to live our lives to the fullest.
