Tuesdays with Morrie-Life’s Greatest Lesson

All humans started their lives from birth and ended with death. As for the blank between those two periods, it is where we fill in our life experiences. Different from simple examinations with “correct answers,” “total time” or “grades” given from teachers, life tends to be like a wrestling match between what we are expected of and what we want for ourselves. It is not until the moment I finished the book Tuesdays with Morrie that I realized the key to the winning side.

The main character, Morrie, is a wise, cheerful and optimistic old man. He was once a professor who taught Social Psychology in Brandeis University, and that is where he set up the precious and unbreakable friendship with his student, Mitch. Years later, the news that Morrie was dying from ALS brought them back together again. As Morrie’s legs and arms withered, and his breathing became labored day by day, he knew he had to make the best of his limited time. He set up discussion groups about dying, had several interviews to tell his story on the “Nightline” show and welcomed a growing stream of visitors to share their problems. When Mitch finally came to the first visit, they began the final fourteen classes on Tuesdays.

Over the past sixteen years after graduation, Mitch had buried himself in accomplishments and tried to satisfy himself with materialistic things, but all that he was busy with left nothing but emptiness inside his heart. To his surprise, each class with Morrie gradually opened his heart as he crossed out his confusion toward complicated lifetime issues in his mind. They talked about abstract concepts like regrets, emotions, forgiveness, and ordinary subjects such as family, marriage and the fear of aging. Mitch recorded each lesson in tapes. Weeks passed and the classes weren’t fluent anymore. They were frequently forced to stop and wait for the end of Morrie’s urgent couch or the physical therapist to finish pounding the back of his ribs. On the fourteenth Tuesday, they held each other with tears rolling down their cheeks and said goodbye. Morrie took his last breath on a peaceful Saturday morning and his funeral was held on a Tuesday.

Henry Adams said, “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” Morrie is the one who perfectly confirms this quote by teaching the meaning of life from his own experiences. Instead of following our culture in which we press our heads down into the water full of egotistical things, Morrie guides us to explore more about love, responsibility, spirituality, awareness and life wisdom which hadn’t been taught in our community. It was my first time to hear the idea of building a little sub-culture and to create our own ways of conversation, interaction and affection with those we love and care. It’s true that many people pursue status, property and materialistic things, trying to fill the emptiness in their lonely soul, but none of them ever consider that love and tenderness are actually the antidote.

Love grows from a relationship, and true ones don’t even fade after the challenge of death. The relationship between Morrie and Mitch may be professor and student, coach and player or simply true friends. No matter which one, it shows how firm and substantial a relationship can be. From their thoughtful actions and warm words toward each other, I’ve learned to be compassionate and learned the way to soothe people’s pain by listening to their problems when they’re in frustration. Through the extensive topics they discussed, I’ve figured out that we don’t have to be world-famous or rich with countless heritage left behind to show off how successful our lives are; instead, the only thing required is a heart full of passion and love to create a meaningful life.