Tuesdays With Morrie

Wealth, reputation, power, are all people's desires and lead us to compete with one another to pursue achievement. Because of that, we always put materials first, assuming that spiritual satisfaction will come along with the luxuries being piled up around us. Therefore, we leave no space for our emotions to stretch and develop deeply.

Mitch Albom, who led a successful life, at the expense of sixteen years diving into his job, alienating from those who love him, accounted a inspirational story about a teacher to the last(An expression I feel Morrie wouldn't mind much). The book helped me rethink about my life, because Morrie revealed that as our pursuit of personal accomplishments grow, our need for affection tend to be sacrificed. Moreover, his questions: what would happen to us if we have to face Death and that even one glimpse of sunrise becomes an extravagance? Can I deal with my own demise as gracefully as he? This question, I am afraid, would take me a lifelong time to wrestle with.

In these fourteen weeks, I gradually understand that the initial reason for him to go back to see his old professor again was that he wished to break out from a life that he felt not his; meanwhile, that transition also makes me see why people isolate themselves with indifference because they are too afraid to expose their sentiments. With their project progressing, I become more aware that love and sincerity are what we can disarm the hostility that separate us. Among the fourteen weeks, I was particularly inspired by the topic on the sixth week. I feel strongly related to it because emotion has always been my biggest issue as a teenager. Although his "detachment" theory may seem too Zen to me, I feel that it makes perfect sense; like how can you learn to recover from sorrow if you never experience any?

Apparently, as a teenager under high expectation, mainly academic ones, from others, I feel I don't really have the power that they claim to be in me to meet the standards. In this topic, it was also the first time that Morrie confessed his fear for dying without dignity, but he managed to face it instead of running away from it, I think we all need such courage to deal with our problems. Although I shouldn't have been upset, for a sorrowful end was already there. Morrie's frequent coughing and abnormal breath still makes me worried. Yet, I am immediately reminded by Morrie's word, detachment, because I should be an objective observer free from emotion so that I could read the book in the way Morrie would want his readers to, in a detaching way. After knowing Morrie's way of dealing with emotions, I shouldn't indulge myself to any emotion for too long, for instance, sadness.

Furthermore, I think great minds think alike; Steve Jobs once said: "Death is a destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it." So did Morrie. He faced Death alone and I thought that he was just reluctant to show the scene in the presence of those he loved. It may be perceived by cynics as something opposed to his philosophy on seeing death throughout the book. But I think that is exactly what made him more like us; a man in spite of merits we all adore still bear human flaws, what really matters in the book should not be whether there is a theatrical climax we are so accustomed to in tragedies but whether we are inspired to deal with our own difficulties from a great teacher.

Finally, I want to say that the quote "Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.", which Morrie had given a finest interpretation of, is in my opinion the wisest words for us. What Morrie did is how his thought changed my stereotype of how people should respond to death with a least sense of fear. In short, the story Morrie granted his precious minutes to instill is a priceless legacy to the generations to go in the future and it is the evidence that he has never been too far away from us.