This is a lovely true story book about Mitch Albom (the author) and the relationship with his university professor, Morrie Schwartz. The book tells about Morrie in his dying illness, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Mitch got back to him and learnt some life’s greatest lesson.
Upon Mitch’s graduation, he was much stuck with his work and being successful in career which is all he thought what he wants until he knew about his professor is dying and paid him a visit. That’s how the syllabus, a syllabus about life begins.
They talked issues about:
- The World
- Feeling Sorry for Yourself
- Regrets
- Death
- Family
- Emotions
- The Fear of Aging
- Money
- How Love Goes on
- Marriage
- Culture
- Forgiveness
- Perfect-Day
- Saying Goodbye
I’ll share some parts which I liked about the issues mentioned in this book.
Firstly, about feeling sorry for ourselves. Morrie was asked whether he felt sorry for himself in his dying condition. He said, “I give myself a good cry if I need it. But then I concentrate on all the good things still in my life…. I don’t allow myself any more self-pity than that. A little each morning…. that’s all… How useful it would be to put a daily limit on self-pity.” At times, I might talked about it, whether to some close friends or blog a lil’ about it, but in the end, I know God is in control of everything. I shouldn’t be worried that much. I’m still learning for a total surrender everytime I encounter anything difficult.
Secondly, is family. “The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn’t the family. It’s become quite clear to me as I’ve been sick. If you don’t have the support and love and caring and concern you get from a family, you don’t have much at all. Love is so supremely important… Love each other or perish.” God even told us to love one another as we love ourselves. Love is the greatest thing above all.
This is what I liked best – emotions. Probably, I’m sorta an emo person. Morrie said learn to detach ourselves from experience. Sounds weird, right? Like Mitch asking him how can you learn about experiences when you detach from them? “Detach 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…. Take any emotion…If you hold back on the emotions - if you don’t allow yourself to go all the way through them – you can never get to being detached, you are too busy getting afraid. You’re afraid of the pain, grief, and vulnerability that loving entails. By allowing yourself to go through all those and experiencing entirely, you will know the pain and love is. Then you tell yourself to detach from it for a moment, saying.” Another one, “All right, that was my moment of loneliness. I’m not afraid of getting lonely, but now I’m going to put that loneliness aside and know that there are other emotions in the world,and I’m gonna experience them as well.” It’s true..some part I think I successfully leave it at the moment after experiencing it deeply, some I leave it right before I experience the entire thing because I was afraid..of pain and hurts. Probably, I should look up and be more courageous and face it.
Last but not least, the quote I liked best in all is “Learn how to die, and you learn how to live.”
[02:44 am]
