Sunday, September 14, 2008

TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE (Real Life Story)

Category:Books
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Author:Mitch Albom

Tuesdays with Morrie
An Old Man, A Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson
Written by: Mitch Albom


The sentiments to be found in the story itself is really touching. It could pinch every heart that could read it.

Honestly, I haven't read to whole story yet but it caught my attention and got my tears out a bit. I will post a better story plot line once i found one.

It is about a professor named Morrie Schwarth on how he has spent his whole life teaching and upon reaching his old age, made him regret of not enjoying his life in the past and he even suffered a sickness called ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), a thickening of tissue in the motor tracts of the lateral columns and anterior horns of the spinal cord which results in progressive muscle atrophy that starts in the limbs. At the same time, Mitch, a famous sports columist was one of Morrie's students in college and was able to watch him being featured about his sickness on television. Mitch was a very busy guy. He spent most of his time at work and even broke-off with his girlfriend just to prioritize his profession.

Many of us prefer to be really good in our professions and not giving much attention to what they call "love" and "happiness". Some would consider it a waste of time and attention.

If someone is focused on his responsibilities, career and idealistic preferences, one may tend to exclude himself from having or expressing emotional freedom and to experience a worthwhile happiness, something that could make him feel fulfilled all throughout until upon reaching old age.

Regret and guilt. I guess that is what Morrie's story points out. The regret for not doing what you could have done and enjoyed during younger days and guilt for not showing affection, care, and love for the people that you should have given it.

Memories. Good or bad, happy or sad, made you cry or not, and all other things that belonged to the past, petty or wonderful memories, it will still make you smile and think that somehow you've experienced that part of your life no matter how silly you've been.

Giving the chance. Morrie taught Mitch to give his life a little break. To give time for love and happiness and not to make his profession as his life like what Morrie did.

Mitch became his student once again and he visited the old man for quite some time (every Tuesday's). He spent a day each week at Morrie's house where he was taught of a great lesson is his life but without any books or term papers, just plainly discussions. The only physical effort was to come every Tuesdays and to help him in moving his body from his chair. Yet Mitch learned a lot, more than what a book could teach him.

In another description of Mitch, the funeral was held in lieu of the graduation. Morrie left him a very remarkable lesson and it's a teacher's happiness to bring a good influence to his students, something that could make them realize their life's worth. (This one made my tears fall)

Wherever Morrie is now, he will definitely be delighted to know that he did a good job in giving his last lecture for his student, his lessons about life was heeded, and his life experience served as an example, not only for Mitch but also for other people who was touched by his story.

To be honest, just by reading the brief summary of Morrie's story makes me quite guilty of myself. I have started to think of myself from the past 23 years of my life. I started to think what is it that makes me happy. What are my best memories that i know I could treasure and keep until I've reached my old age? Does it make me happy or sad? Have i done anything worthy yet for myself and for my family?

Some people tell me that I'm still too young especially when it comes to marriage and career. Most people say that, not only to me but generally speaking, it's what I could hear them say to anyone who were at my age range.

Based on this story, I think we could only say that we have found happiness if we know for ourselves how to define our own happiness. As for Morrie, he learned his life's greatest lesson during his old age, out of school, and out of text books, when he finally realized the worth of his existence. And as a teacher, his greatest lecture was with his student, Mitch, who stood by his side and willingly heard and put at heart the message that he wanted to partake.

By the way, this is a true story.

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PLOT LINE (From Wikipedia)
Mitch Albom recalls his graduation from Brandeis University in the spring of 1979. After he has received his diploma, Mitch approaches his favorite professor, Morrie Schwartz, and presents him with a monogrammed briefcase. While at Brandeis, Mitch takes almost all of the sociology courses Morrie had taught. He promises Morrie he will keep in touch, but does not fulfill his promise. Years after Mitch's graduation from Brandeis, Morrie has been diagnosed with ALS, a debilitating disease that leaves his "soul, perfectly awake, imprisoned inside a limp husk" of a body. Morrie's wife, Charlotte, cares for Morrie, though at his insistence, keeps her job as a professor at M.I.T.

Sixteen years after his graduation from Brandeis, Mitch is feeling frustrated with the life he has chosen to live. As his life develops Mitch abandons his dream of becoming a jazz pianist to become a well-paid journalist for a Detroit newspaper. Mitch promises his wife Janine, a singer, that they will eventually have children, but he spends all of his time at work and away on reporting assignments. One night, Mitch is flipping the channels on his television and recognizes Morrie's voice. Morrie is being featured on the television program "Nightline" in the first of three interviews with Ted Koppel, whom he quickly befriends. Before consenting to be interviewed, Morrie surprises and softens the famed newscaster when he asks Koppel what is "close to his heart." Mitch is stunned to see his former professor on television.

Following Morrie's television appearance, Mitch contacts his old professor and travels from his home in Detroit to Morrie's home in West Newton, Massachusetts to visit him. When Mitch drives up to Morrie's house, he delays greeting his professor because he is speaking on the phone with his producer, a decision he later regrets.

Shortly after his reunion with Morrie, Mitch works himself nearly to death reporting on the Wimbledon tennis tournament in London. There, he spends much time thinking about Morrie and forfeits reading the tabloids, as he now seeks more meaning in his life and knows that he will not gain this meaning from reading about celebrities and gossip. He is knocked over by a swarm of reporters chasing celebrities Andre Agassi and Brooke Shields, and it is then that Mitch realizes he is chasing after the wrong thing. When he returns to his home in Detroit, Mitch learns that the article he has worked so hard to write will not even be published, as the union he belongs to is striking against the newspaper he works for. Once more, Mitch travels to Boston to visit Morrie.

Following their first Tuesday together, Mitch returns regularly every Tuesday to listen to Morrie's lessons on "The Meaning of Life." Each week, Mitch brings Morrie food to eat, though as Morrie's condition worsens he is no longer able to enjoy solid food. In his first of three interviews with Koppel for "Nightline," Morrie admits that the thing he dreads most about his worsening condition is that someday, he will not be able to wipe himself after using the bathroom. Eventually, this fear comes true.

Interspersed throughout Mitch's visits to Morrie are flashbacks to their days together at Brandeis. Mitch describes himself as a student who had acted tough, but had sought the tenderness he recognized in Morrie. At Brandeis, Mitch and Morrie shared a relationship more like that between father and son than teacher and student. Soon before Morrie's death, when his condition has deteriorated so much that he can no longer breathe or move on his own, he confides that if he could have another son, he would choose Mitch.

In his childhood, Morrie had been very poor. His father, Charlie, had been cold and dispassionate, and had neglected to provide for Morrie and his younger brother emotionally and financially. At the age of eight, Morrie must read the telegram that brings news of his mother's death, as he is the only one in his family who can read English. Charlie marries Eva, a kind woman who gives Morrie and his brother the love and affection they need. Eva also instills in Morrie his love of books and his desire for education. However, Charlie insists that Morrie keep his mother's death a secret, as he wants Morrie's younger brother to believe that Eva is his biological mother. This demand to keep his mother's death a secret proves a terrible emotional burden for young Morrie; he keeps the telegram all of his life as proof that his mother had existed. Because he was starved of love and affection during his childhood, Morrie seeks it out in his old age from his family and friends. Now that he is nearing his death, Morrie says that he has reverted to a figurative infancy, and tries in earnest to "enjoy being a baby again." He and Mitch often hold hands throughout their sessions together.

On one of their Tuesdays, Morrie tells Mitch of a daydream he had of his father standing outside the window of his house, reading the paper like he had all the years of his childhood. This urges him to tell all he can to Mitch so that he won't die like his father; unable to share all of his emotions and love to the world.

In his lessons, Morrie advises Mitch to reject the popular culture in favor of creating his own. The individualistic culture Morrie encourages Mitch to create for himself is a culture founded on love, acceptance, and human goodness, a culture that upholds a set of ethical values unlike the mores that popular culture endorses. Popular culture, Morrie says, is founded on greed, selfishness, and superficiality, which he urges Mitch to overcome. Morrie also stresses that he and Mitch must accept death and aging, as both are inevitable.

On one Tuesday, Janine travels with Mitch to visit Morrie. Janine is a professional singer, and Morrie asks her to sing for him. Though she does not usually sing upon request, Janine concedes, and her voice moves Morrie to tears. Morrie cries freely and often, and continually encourages Mitch to do so also. As Morrie's condition deteriorates, so does that of the pink hibiscus plant that sits on the window ledge in his study. Mitch becomes increasingly aware of the evil in media, as it drenches the country with stories of murder and hatred. One such story is the murder trial of O.J. Simpson, the verdict of which causes major racial division between whites and blacks.

Mitch tape records his discussions with Morrie so that he may compile notes with which to write a book, Tuesdays With Morrie, a project which he and Morrie refer to as their "last thesis together." Morrie continually tells Mitch that he wants to share his stories with the world, and the book will allow him to do just that.

Meanwhile, at Morrie's insistence, Mitch attempts to restore his relationship with his brother Peter who lives in Spain. For many years, Peter has refused his family's help in battling pancreatic cancer and insists on seeking treatment alone. Mitch calls Peter and leaves numerous phone messages, though the only reply he receives from his brother is a curt message in which Peter insists he is fine, and reminds Mitch that he does not want to talk about his illness. Morrie prophesies that Mitch will once more become close with his brother, a prophecy which, after Morrie's death, is realized.

At Morrie's funeral, Mitch recalls his promise to continue his conversations with his professor and conducts a silent dialogue with Morrie in his head. Mitch had expected such a dialogue to feel awkward, however this communication feels far more natural than he had ever expected. He looks down at his watch, and realized that it is Tuesday.

In the end after fourteen Tuesdays, Morrie Schwartz took his last breath.

QUOTES (From Wikipedia)
* "Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won’t be dissatisfied, you won’t be envious, you won’t be longing for somebody else’s things. On the contrary, you’ll be overwhelmed with what comes back."
* "You know what that reflects? Unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that haven't found meaning. Because if you’ve find meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward."
* "When you learn how to die, you learn how to live."
* "Death ends a life, not a relationship."
* "The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in."
* "Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them, too - even when you’re in the dark. Even when you’re falling."
* "When you're in bed, you're dead"
* "Death: the only true emotion felt in an apathetic world"
* "Love wins. Love always wins."
* "As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed as ignorant as you were at twenty-two, you'd always be twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It's growth. It's more than the negative that you're going to die, it's the positive that you understand you're going to die, and that you live a better life because of it."
* "Love each other or perish."
* "Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone."
* "Don't hang on too long, but don't let go too soon."
* "Without love, we are birds with broken wings."
* "Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?"
* "If the culture doesn't work, don't buy it."
* "If we can remember the feeling of love we once had, we can die without ever going away."
* "What is it about silence that makes people uneasy?"
* "We're tuesday people"

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Scanlation of the Book
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0385484518/ref=sib_dp_pt/105-6452214-5938803#reader-link
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/morrie/

Some links about the book:
http://www.albomfivepeople.com/tuesdayswithmorrie.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuesdays_with_Morrie
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/morrie/play.html

Movie (1999) link
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0207805/
Starring:
Jack Lemmon
Hank Azaria
Director: Mick Jackson
http://www.amazon.com/Tuesdays-Morrie-Jack-Lemmon/dp/B00008L3SE/ref=pd_sim_b_4/105-6452214-5938803

Morrie: In His Own Words (by Morrie Schwartz)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0385318790/ref=sib_fs_top/105-6452214-5938803?ie=UTF8&p=S00K&checkSum=xRbG4vLhjb9Y%2BTIxePFqLxiJDk0oUx%2BmNEZLQ8x4rNw%3D#

Five People You Meet in Heaven
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0786868716/ref=sib_fs_top/105-6452214-5938803?ie=UTF8&p=S00F&checkSum=xRbG4vLhjb%2BqJmMsPUlFP0VzsbcTW77jNRKEhFRFbtc%3D#reader-link