Tuesdays with Morrie

Life is the most impartial judge, and treats everyone equally. No matter what identity you have, you must go through birth, aging, sickness, and the very end, death. As the last destination of life, people confront death with diverse attitudes. Some fear and escape as it were the most horrible devil. Others neglect and take it as nothing. Still others face death honestly, try their best to live a full, colorful life. Morrie is a good example of the third kind of people.

In Morrie’s late years, he was faced with the most difficult dilemma—he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS), a disease with no known cure. Upon hearing the bad news, Morrie was stunned just like he was hit by the lightning. For the first time, he felt his existence was so insignificant that the world didn’t stop due to his tragedy even for a second. As the disease harmed his health little by little, Morrie became weaker and could not help but give up his favorite activities. However, after giving a deep thought to his circumstances, Morrie made a profound decision. He was determined to change his attitude toward death, make it his final project, and be a “human textbook” for others. He shared his perceptions about death with others, and a feature story on TV reconnected Morrie’s student, Mitch, and him. Then Mitch pay regular visits to Morrie on Tuesdays, and through these times, he learned numerous genuinely valuable things in life during the fourteen courses taught by his old professor.

Among the classes, the most impressive section for me was their talk of death. Morrie said “The truth is once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” These words tug at my heartstrings, and just like threw pebbles into the lake of my heart, making a series of ripples. I agree with Morrie’s concept a lot. People always look upon death as the end; thus, they keep away from thinking even talking about it. Nevertheless, in my opinion, everything has two aspects. Death is not only an end, but also a start. It stands for the end of our living body as well as a brand-new start of our spirits. No one can escape from dying, which is part of natural life. However, we can change our attitudes to confront it honestly, frankly. Death is not a scary demon but a wise teacher. Many people are afraid of it, and cheated by its horrible appearance. But what they don’t discover is that if they view death by their true heart, and think twice, they will find something important that the teacher—death want they to know. It is people’s fear that they can’t understand the genuine meaning of death, one of which is the check of their past life. Some people didn’t care about death, just hanging around all day long, wasting their time. And some spare no effort to pursue money and fame, only find their empty heart in the end. On account of their misunderstanding about death that they even neglect the real meaning of life.

Death is the counterpart of life, but they’re also like two rings linked together. Life give you time to understand death; death makes you draw the blue print of your wonderful life. And this is the reason why Morrie said those words. Only do we think deeply about death and be brave to face it that we can feel the beauty of life. Death not solely plays a crucial role in this book, but it also represents the end of our life journey. Nevertheless, we don’t have to be sorrowful about dying. People’s bodies might be gone, but their spirits will last forever. As Morrie, though he passed away, his frank attitude toward death and life experience will never be forgotten, and keep bringing streams of warm water that touched everyone to each heart. Morrie’s story gives me a lot of edifications about life. I expect myself to confront death as frank as Morrie, and add more color to the album of the paintings of my life, living more meaningfully. Maybe some day I could also be a human textbook for my offspring!