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A review by inherbooks
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
5.0
I’m grateful for the soul that gave this to the used book store for me to find. Serendipity.
“Tuesdays with Morrie” is a book about Morrie, Mitch’s old professor, who is diagnosed with ALS and is keen to write his final "thesis" with Mitch as the disease spreads relentlessly through his body. It’s also about dying just as much as it is about living. As Morrie said, “once you learn how to die, you learn how to live”. Each week, Mitch visits Morrie (on a Tuesday) and discusses topics such as death, forgiveness, family, and love to name a few.
The *tiny* cynic in me first thought Morrie would be an unrealistically preachy, happy-go-lucky dying person. I was happy to find I felt like I was in a conversation with Morrie, sitting across from him in his office, and clinging to his every word as he explained and repeated what I needed to hear. Morrie embodied what it means to be at peace. I cried, I laughed, and I grieve with both Morrie and Mitch – I was wholly invested.
“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. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle.”
…
So which side wins?
“He smiles at me, the crinkles eyes, the crooked teeth.
“Love wins. Love always wins.”
Morrie stresses the importance of love, of spirituality, of relationships and doing more for your community. Our constant need to satisfy the “culture” is pointless because “status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.” While he acknowledges he is dying, he also says “when I give my time, when I can make someone smile after they were feeling sad, it’s as close to healthy as I ever feel.”
This is a character-driven book, not plot-driven, and just what I needed for a change in pace.
I have so much underlined (and I never do that to my books) in here but I know I’m going to keep going back to this one for a very long time.
“Tuesdays with Morrie” is a book about Morrie, Mitch’s old professor, who is diagnosed with ALS and is keen to write his final "thesis" with Mitch as the disease spreads relentlessly through his body. It’s also about dying just as much as it is about living. As Morrie said, “once you learn how to die, you learn how to live”. Each week, Mitch visits Morrie (on a Tuesday) and discusses topics such as death, forgiveness, family, and love to name a few.
The *tiny* cynic in me first thought Morrie would be an unrealistically preachy, happy-go-lucky dying person. I was happy to find I felt like I was in a conversation with Morrie, sitting across from him in his office, and clinging to his every word as he explained and repeated what I needed to hear. Morrie embodied what it means to be at peace. I cried, I laughed, and I grieve with both Morrie and Mitch – I was wholly invested.
“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. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle.”
…
So which side wins?
“He smiles at me, the crinkles eyes, the crooked teeth.
“Love wins. Love always wins.”
Morrie stresses the importance of love, of spirituality, of relationships and doing more for your community. Our constant need to satisfy the “culture” is pointless because “status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.” While he acknowledges he is dying, he also says “when I give my time, when I can make someone smile after they were feeling sad, it’s as close to healthy as I ever feel.”
This is a character-driven book, not plot-driven, and just what I needed for a change in pace.
I have so much underlined (and I never do that to my books) in here but I know I’m going to keep going back to this one for a very long time.