In Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch and Morrie talk about many interesting topics such as regret, death, love, and forgiveness. There was one lesson that always stuck to me throughout the book, refusing. "When your in bed you're dead" is an example. Morrie refuses to stay in bed because he feels that is a surrender for ALS, eventually he does die in bed. Morrie also refuses to not to forgive people. He believes that he has to forgive others or else he will live a life of lives. He also believes that you should ignore culture and enjoy the little things in life.
In the Twelfth Tuesday Morrie talks about forgiveness. Morrie says that it is crucial to forgive others. Morrie believes that he is very lucky that he has time to forgive others before he dies. Morrie fears that there will be lies before he says goodbye. That is why he is constantly forgiving others. He believes this will help him live life to the fullest before he dies.
Over the course of the book, Morrie taught me many things but the most important thing that he taught me was to accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do. Morrie accepts that he can't walk and is no longer able to dance like he used to to. But, Morrie also accepts that he can still talk and that he also has many people that come to visit just him. This lesson also teaches me to be grateful for what I have and to not envy what I don't have. I also think that this lesson applies to treating others. You have to accept that some people don't have everything that you have. To accept yourself means to see our perfections as much as our imperfections.
In the 11th Tuesday, the trial with O.J. Simpson ended. Morrie didn't really care because now that he is dying, he cares about the little things rather than the big things in life. In the 1979 basketball game, Morrie says that there is nothing wrong with being second. This shows that Morrie doesn't care about being better than everyone. Morrie proved that it is okay with being second sometimes. This also teaches us that we can't be the best all the time.
On the 10th Tuesday, Mitch brings in his wife Janine. Commitment is an important trait in marriage. MItch believes that our generation struggles with commitment, we rush into marriage without getting to know the other person. Mitch describes it as an alligator from a murky swamp. Morrie has rules for marriage. You have to respect the other person and compromise, you have to treat marriage like it is the most important thing. For marriage to work you need commitment, respect, and dedication. In my opinion for a marriage to last you need two people who refuse to give up on each other.
In the Ninth Tuesday, Morrie talks about how love goes on. My grandmother passed away a year ago but her memory is still here, such as photos and gifts that she gave me. I also still love her even though she is gone. Love for anything can go on such as a person or thing it is a way to make their memory live on. I believe that this is the best way to remember someone. Love can be forgotten or it can go on. I will never stop my love for my grandmother. I believe that if you keep loving someone even after they have left you will have thier prescence and hope, hope that one day you will see them again. We all fall in love with a person or an activity, but it is our choice to continue loving someone, this is how love goes on.
#1Morrie embraces the little things in life such as music. He does this because he know that he will die soon so the little things in life start to matter. This relates to the talk about More is Good. Morrie believes that items don't matter in life, the little things matter like nature, music and emotions. When you are dying you realize this. You also learn than life is more than just items. Then, the phrase More is Good becomes Everything is Beautiful. #2I agree with the passage from the book. When people are in need of something they do use substitutes. For example when someone leaves for an amount of time the other person tends to hang out with different people until the person comes back, this can also work for feelings and items. People do this because they miss something or are in need of it. I think people substitue because they are lonley and the item/people can comfort and distract them from the feeling/person that they miss. #3Morrie believes that we are brainwashed with the phrase More is good. We are caught up with having bigger and better things that the important things in life don't matter. He says that we are hungry for love that we are willing to accept items. We were expecting the items to give us a the love we need. But the truth is that money and items are not the substitute. The substitute is people because unlike items they can give us love.
Morrie and Mitch both have different views on aging. Morrie says that not just older people have struggles, young people struggle too. He views us as not wise and having little understanding with life. Morrie embraces aging he believes that as you grow, you learn more than you did when you were younger. People wishing that they were younger live unsatisfied and unfilled lives. Morrie knows that you will die eventually. You will have to find what is good in your life now. Morrie has been through all the stages of life so he doesn't envy those who are younger. Mitch is like most of the population, always wishing to be younger. He envys those who are younger and don't have as many problems as him. We all have problems but they are different. Mitch tries to embrace being young and wants to stay young.
A lot of people wish that they were younger. I believe that when you grow older you will learn different things to help you in the end, if you miss a stage you miss a thing, you need to go through all the stages. Being young has many advantages, things come easier physically to most of us. We are accepted more because we live in a generation with many more types of people like us. But, I agree with Morrie, the younger aren't as wise and have little understanding in life. The older people know more and have been through all the stages in life. The have experienced a life that we haven't and might not. I compare younger people to new and fast sketches but older people are detailed works of art. It took time to make them beautiful. Do you believe in reincarnation? I ask. "Perhaps." What would you come back as? "If I had my choice, a gazelle" A gazelle? "Yes. So graceful. So fast." A gazelle? Morrie smiles at me. "You think that's strange?" I study his shrunken frame, the loose clothes, the socks-wrapped feet that rest stiffly on foam rubber cushions, unable to move, like a prisioner in leg irons. I picture a gazelle racing across the desert. No, I say. I don't think that's strange at all.
When Mitch asks about reincarnation Morrie responds with a gazelle. Mitch wonders why. A gazelle can gracefully run fast across the desert with no boundaries unlike Morrie who is trapped in a foam rubber cushion prison cell. Mitch finally understands, Morrie wants to be not an animal but a human who would walk freely without any pain. Morrie is dying from ALS and will never be able to walk freely again. A gazelle is his role model, somethings he wants to be. Morrie just wants to walk. If I reincarnated I would like to be a bird because when life got tough I could escape up into the bright blue sky. When I flew over people they would see the shadow of the bird and look up seeing it fly freely in the sky. I would get an ariel view of the world trying to see the little details while we are trying to see the world from above. The sky is huge and the higher I fly the smaller the people become until they are gone and it is just me, the world, and the sky. |