Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom - Book Report/Review Example

Tuesdays with Morrie This book is narrated by Mitch Albom, who is a well-known sports and novelist, as he tells the story of an old professor he used to have, Morrie Schwartz. He begins the story by letting the reader know up front that this teacher was dying of ALS, Lou Gherig’s disease, relatively early, but the story he tells really begins when Mitch was a young college graduate in the spring of 1979. He presented his favorite professor with a monogrammed briefcase and hopes his professor will remember him. The story then provides a brief overview of what Mitch did from college to the first time he heard his old professor was sick. This involved finding career success as a sports writer and his personal failures as a divorcee and loss of individual values. He talks about the various ways in which he disappointed himself because he has not been able to live up to his promises or expectations for himself. He gets back in touch with his teacher when he sees a story on him on TV that reveals Professor Schwartz was dying. In reuniting with his old teacher, Albom is given the opportunity to learn about the things that become actually important to people as they are dying from a man who took a uniquely open approach to the process. Schwartz tells Albom about the impressions he has about the important things in life after having spent a lifetime as a sociology professor and with the clarity of letting go. Throughout their conversations, Mitch learns many things that are important in life that can help others live better lives starting now. One of the most important lessons in the book was the idea that the things that are important in life as defined by society are not the same things as what was actually important in life. Society says that what we need to be happy are houses, cars, decorated environments, nice clothes, fame and wealth. This life is not set up to help people be happy as they are constantly consumed with things that really make no difference for them in the long run. Schwartz says we do it because we are afraid to face the things that scare us, like the idea that we’re going to die. Throughout the book, Albom continues to reinforce the things that Schwartz felt were important, such as learning what was important to you on an internal level and living up to those expectations for yourself. He says, when you realize you’re going to die, you see everything much differently. Learn how to die and you learn how to live. Ambition seems much less important to people who face the idea of death every day, but you become more involved with spiritual things that are around us. We learn how to appreciate the little things and we learn how to appreciate our relationships with others. These are the things that make us happy – learning to appreciate every moment as often as we can. Another important lesson that is included in the story is the idea that you have to let love in. It’s so easy to go through life thinking that nobody really loves you and that you’re all alone. Especially when you’re facing death, it would be easy to remind yourself that this is something that you have to do all alone. The subject comes up when Schwartz notices how difficult it is for Albom to show or give affection. For Schwartz, the slightest human contact was the greatest joy. Albom mentions how much joy Schwartz got out of having to have Albom lean over to adjust the microphone for their talks. It brought him within ‘hugging range’. He criticizes Albom for not working harder to accept love and instead worked to reject it. Schwartz points out that without love, we are birds with broken wings. It is love that supports us through the worst points of our lives and gives us the strength we need to overcome adversity. Love and family is about letting others know there is someone watching out for them, nothing else will give you this kind of spiritual security. Something that every young person should learn is how to put a limit on self-pity. This is a very important lesson that is taught in this book. As he is dying, Schwartz admits that there are times when he feels very sorry for himself while he watches his body die and he loses his ability to control it. The pain he goes through and his fear about what is to come are things that he cannot ignore. However, he gives himself some time in the mornings to grieve his own death, cry his own tears and feel the fear of his own death. Rather than allowing himself to grieve throughout the time he has left or fearing the idea of being a fully conscious human being trapped in a non-responsive shell, Schwartz says he dedicates the rest of his time simply working to appreciate small things in life, such as the view out his window or the time he has available to spend with friends and family. As he gets closer to death, he tells Albom the importance of detaching, which is not the same thing as ignoring these emotions. According to Schwartz, detaching involves fully allowing yourself to experience your emotions, especially the negative ones, so that you are able to fully understand what that emotion is and know that the emotion itself will not kill you. Then you can recognize what that emotion is, accept it and then move on to experience other emotions, perhaps more positive ones. When Schwartz first became ill, he knew something more was wrong with him than just that he was aging. After undergoing a lot of tests, the doctors finally realized he had ALS and that he was dying. This concept that one should believe what they feel is carried throughout the book. It is taken deeper when Albom tells the story about a trust exercise he witnessed in Schwartz’s class in which one girl closed her eyes and allowed herself to fall backward without flinching until her partner managed to catch her just before she hit the ground. Schwartz told her she was able to do it because she closed her eyes and just trusted what she felt. When the idea comes forward again, it has an even deeper meaning as Ted Coppell asked Schwartz what a conversation between him after he’d lost his voice and a friend who was losing his hearing would be like. Schwartz answered they would just hold hands. After having shared such a strong friendship, he says they would be able to just feel the conversation. This book is presented with a straight-forward, clear-eyed approach that leaves no room for modesty or evasion. This makes it easy to read and the lessons very approachable. Even when you try to resist the idea of being taught something, the book is not overly preachy and is instead interesting enough to keep you wanting to read further. Although only a few lessons have been discussed in this review, the book has much wisdom to impart. Although Schwartz is dying, he has much to teach about what it means to live, really live, and conveys lessons that young people need to know in order to avoid a lifetime wasted chasing after the wrong things. He even provides a way for young people to always remember how to put importance on the right things – pretend there is a small bird on your shoulder that knows when you are going to die always singing to remind you that that day is coming. Live your moments as if today was the last day. Works Cited Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson. New York: Random House, 2002. Read More