HW 22 - Illness & Dying Book Part 1

Title: tuesdays with Morrie

Author: Mitch Albom

Publisher: Doubleday

Year Published: 1997

Precis: pg 39-48

It is clear by now that Morrie has had an extremely significant effect on Mitch Albom. As he writes "Before college i did not know the study of human relations could be considered scholarly. Until i met Morrie, i did not believe it". Mitch takes a trip to london to cover Wimbledon and here is where he receives hands on experience with Morries sayings. As a sportscaster, Mitch realizes how stupid the papparazzi is and just in general how much of a dumb idea it is that humans obsess over other humans lifestyles.

Quotes:

"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"

"The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it"

"'So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote your self to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.' I knew he was right. Not that i did anything about it"

Final Thoughts:

The way this book portrays illness and dying are very straight-foward. I can connect my experiences and insights to this book because (i believe) the book is based on the saying "You never know what you have till its gone." In this case Mitch Albom doesn't bother to reach Morrie for years after graduating until seeing Morrie on TV. So far in the book it almost seems like his writing is a guilt trip, a way to give back to Morrie for all of his teachings. In terms of the way that this book portrays how other people go about Illness and dying? As stated before Mitch seems depressed about the timely death of his important techer, while Morrie is very accepting of the fact that he is about to die. In fact, in one paragraph Morrie explains to mitch how he is dying in descriptive detail, showing no signs of denial (this might have something to do of how well he is taken care of when dying in his own home)