Book Review: Tuesdays with Morrie

Any advice, guidance by elders or any message by a good book works when we found ourselves into that context to realize the fact.

During recent pandemic, we have witnessed the death a lot like never before. During lockdown period, I used to get vegetable from a vendor just outside our society. He was a very nice person and very healthy. We got familiar and used to have chit chat whenever I used to get out to have vegetables from him. Suddenly one morning I saw commotion outside his house and came to know that he was no more.

The incident shook me and uncertainty and vanity of life became so much prominent.

While I started reading the ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’, life’s simple yet elusive facts became so much clear.

‘Tuesday with Morrie’ is a conversation book between an old man, a young man and about life’s greatest lesson they discussed. This book is written by Mitch Albom as a conversation with his old teacher, Morrie who was suffering from ALS.

Post his graduation, Mitch like most other young people devoted his time fulling his dream of ambitious life of own house, luxurious car, etc. He seemed lost in the whirlpool of chasing life. And suddenly met his ailing mentor after decades.

Mitch started meeting Morrie every Tuesday and got life lessons from Morrie about most of the aspects of life – world, self, regrets in life, marriage, money, death, family, culture, forgiveness.

Mitch gets a second chance to look at life with different perspective and having fulfilling life.

Main message which Morrie gave to Mitch is: there is no such thing as ‘too late’ in life.

And same applies to all of us.

Few great message and lines from the book:

“Detachment doesn’t mean you don’t let the experience penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully. That’s how you are able to leave it."

“Don’t cling to things because everything is impermanent.”

“The truth is, once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”

“Accept who you are; and revel in it.”

“Death ends a life, not a relationship.”

“If you're trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down on you anyhow. And if you're trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.”

“The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it.”

“Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you’re bound to do something else.”

“As you grow, you learn more. Aging is not just decay…it’s growth. It’s more than the negative that you’re going to die, it’s also the positive that you understand that you’re going to die, and that you live a better life because of it.”

“Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone.”

“Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.”

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. Let it come in. We think we don’t deserve love, we think if we let it in we’ll become too soft. But a wise man named Levin said it right. He said, “Love is the only rational act.”

“Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”

“Everyone knows they re going to die,' he said again, 'but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.”