Book Review: A Life Affirming Journey with Morrie
A book review? Yes! I wrote this a year ago for my previous company's staff newsletter. As I was scanning through the files saved in my laptop, I found this and might as well post it here. Maybe there will be someone who can read it.
Reading a book or even just looking at it, for some it means boredom! That perception might change at the end of this book review or it still won’t. But nevertheless, I would love to share bits and pieces of some great books to you. Let me be a storyteller to those who don't have time to turn a page. So in this first book review, join me as I journey back and inject my views about a book that tells a true to life story of an old man who gives life’s most reflective discourses to a young man.
Mitch Albom’s heart-warming book, Tuesdays with Morrie is a story about his favorite college professor Morrie Schwartz whom he visited once a week after seeing him in an interview in a television show after 16 years. The book was first published in 1997. What is Tuesdays with Morrie about? And why at the end of reading this book review you will find yourself in a bookstore or googling an ebook of this book?
Morrie was diagnosed with ALS or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease. It is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. He is literally on his deathbed as this illness has no cure (not even up to this day). But this book is not about his disease but about how he faces death without a fuss or self-loathing, that although he's sick, dying, and often in pain, he's not afraid of death, but rather interested in getting as much as possible out of the life he has left. Instead of being miserable about his inevitable death, Morrie has accepted it. And even on his last days, he was able to teach his last class with his last student with the most profound subject-----the meaning of life.
Morrie and Mitch met for 14 Tuesdays. They talked about the world, about feeling sorry for yourself, regrets, death, family, emotions, the fear of aging, money, love, marriage, culture, forgiveness, about the perfect day and lastly how they say goodbye. Tuesdays with Morrie is a heartwarming reminder to all of us what is important in life even for people who believe they have everything in life. It teaches us to enjoy each day as it comes and not take anything for granted. Personally, after reading this book years ago, it makes me look at life differently. Even though I personally don’t know Morrie, his wisdom lives in me through this book. I learned to understand and accept that not everything I want in life will be in my hands. And that being grateful of what I have will save me from the misery of chasing those I thought what matters most but not. It made me realized a lot of things. One of which is there’s nothing wrong not to be number one or not being great in everything you do. As what Morrie said, “What’s wrong with being number two?” True to it, there’s really nothing wrong with being number two. We are just so absorbed of being number one to the extent that we are more than willing to jeopardize the rest of what’s important. And that is to value those we have. Tuesdays with Morrie thought me to accept the things I can do and those that I cannot. It changed from chasing excellence into doing the best I can in everything I do. What motivates me now is not to excel but rather to be satisfied with myself because I give it all my best.
Tuesdays with Morrie teaches us how not to dwell on anything but rather embrace it and move on from it, be it bad or good. How miserable would it be to know that you have an incurable disease? Morrie knows that he’s dying and yet it did not stop him from living his remaining days. He was neither scared of it nor ashamed to show to every one of him being weak. If Morrie was able to accept and let go of the scariest thing on earth---death, then why are we people so coward to dwell even on those slightest problems we encounter? This made me ponder and realized not to be controlled of the situation I am in but instead, I should be the one controlling it. It is a fact that we cannot control every circumstance we are in but we can always control how we react to that situation. As for Morrie, he can choose to be stubborn and be a pain in the ass to those surrounding him. His illness is an excused to it and everyone will try to understand him and yet he chose to accept death as an inevitable part of life.
In addition, this book also teaches us about ALS and its overwhelming effects on even the most high-spirited of people and how someone's illness and forthcoming death can affect those closest to the person in both a sad and positive way. If you have ever had to say goodbye to a loved one, you will understand and be a fan of Tuesdays with Morrie. To which I think all of us will eventually say goodbye.
Tuesdays with Morrie is one of the best books I’ve ever read. It is one of the saddest, greatly moving, genuinely touching, life encouraging book. It never failed to make me shed a few tears every time I read it. Whenever I felt lost and exhausted, it always reminds me of how wonderful it is to live and be grateful for every little thing I have. In a world we are in right now, that everything seems to evolve on material things, we might as well acknowledge that life is limited and that we should start living life and stop chasing what the world wants us to have. Morrie wants us to start accepting instead of keep on asking. This book has both a sad but beautiful ending in getting across the message that death is a part of living and shouldn't be feared. This message might be too heavy for some of you but we all have to face up to it eventually. As what Morrie said, “Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”
Sharing some of Morrie’s aphorisms that might shade some learnings:
“Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do; Accept the past as past without denying it or discarding it; Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others; Don’t assume that it’s too late to get involved.”
“Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn’t. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted.”
“Part of the problem is that everyone is in such a hurry. People haven’t found meaning in their lives, so they’re running all the time looking for it. They think the next car, the next house, the next job. Then they find those things empty, too, and they keep running.”
And my personal favorite: “Don’t let go too soon, don’t hang on too long.”
Gotcha! You’ve read it until the end. And I hope I am able to impart the wisdom I found in this book. ‘Til the next review.
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