Tuesdays With Morrie: A Short Review

This is another one of those books that I have been meaning to read for years, but for one reason or another, I have never managed to get around to it. I’m sure that many of you have read it, but for those who haven’t, it is written by Mitch Albom and it is a true recollection of the Tuesday meetings he had with his college professor (Morrie Schwarz), in the months leading up to the professors death.

Morrie was a man who was about life and all of its intricacies. He’s the teacher that you always wanted to have. In his decades of teaching, he built up wonderful relationships with both students and peers alike, and it seems to me that all of those people’s lives were richer for him being a part of it. Unfortunately for Morrie, in his seventies he was struck by the same disease that Stephen Hawking is effected by – amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). For a man who loved his life, and loved to live his life, this could have been perceived to be worse than a death sentence. Essentially it was a death sentence, but this disease could not have picked a worse victim, for the way that this disease would eventually effect Morrie, was everything that was at the heart of Morrie as a person.
However, Morrie did not view this as a death sentence. He realised that he had limited time left and he took the opportunity to reflect on his life and rather than waste the time, he utilised it to say goodbye to all the people whom he held dear to him. The most touching example of this was when he held his “living funeral”, when all his family and closest friends gathered around and told Morrie all the things they loved about him and all the things they would miss the most.

I regret not having read this beautiful book earlier. It is a very short book, but the 100 or so pages made me reflect on the short years I have lived so far and reflect on what I have or haven’t achieved. It really does make me want to be a better person and do the things that I want to do today, rather than wait around until it is too late. At the end of the day, we are all dying. I realise how morbid that is, but it is a fact that there is no escaping. So I think that tomorrow I might become a Tuesday Person. Tomorrow I will endeavor to do something that I have been putting off. There is a very long list to choose from…

RATING – 10 out of 10. But keep tissues handy.

WHO SHOULD READ IT – Anybody who loves their life and wants to be better at it.

WHO YOU’LL LOVE – It is virtually impossible not to love Morrie. If you tell me you don’t, you can’t possibly be human.

FAVOURITE QUOTE – ‘I asked Morrie if he felt sorry for himself.

“Sometimes, in the mornings,” he said. “That’s when I mourn…I mourn the slow, insidious way in which I’m dying. But then I stop mourning”.

Just like that?

“I give myself a good cry if I need it. But then I concentrate on all the good things still in my life. On the people who are coming to see me. On the stories I am going to hear. On you – if it’s Tuesday. Because we’re Tuesday people”. ‘