Lessons from Tuesdays with Morrie

10/10/2017 Bassima Alansary 0 Comments

Last week I had the pleasure of reading the splendid book 'Tuesdays with Morrie' , it took me up and down into a spiritual trip.
 The book talks about Morrie Schwartz a professor who died 20 years ago with Lou Gehrig's disease, he shared with Mitch Albom his theories on various subjects such as culture, family, forgiveness, death,  and marriage. Albom wrote this novel to help pay the immense medical bills for Morrie.

The little wave

" a little wave was bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He’s enjoying the wind and the fresh air – until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore. “My God, this terrible”, the wave says. “Look what’s going to happen to me!”
Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him: “Why do you look so sad?”
The first wave says: “You don’t understand! We’re all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn’t it terrible?”
The second wave says: “No, you don’t understand. You’re not a wave, you’re part of the ocean."

Albom had the chance to visit his old professor at frequent times throughout the remaining months of his life. He wrote down all the things he learned during this time, and gathered them into his novel.

This book is a page turner, I expressed many powerful emotions while reading the topics that Morrie discussed with Mitch.

He has done something I wish I could do, he exposed himself to the society around him, his fears, tears, and his illness! He was truly a brave man.

However, his proverb "Death ends a life, not a relationship.” demonstrate it's value as he lies dead in his grave when people still cherish his memory.

I want to share with you four lessons I learnt from Morrie:

The 1st lesson on love:

Morrie said: "The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”... “Let it come in. We think we don’t deserve love, we think if we let it in we’ll become too soft. But a wise man named Levine said it right. He said, ‘Love is the only rational act.'”

In truth, I strongly believe that love is the main message Morrie wanted to convey. Love in its pure form, being alive worth nothing if you don't have the ability to spread love around you, so "love one another or die".

The 2nd lesson on wealth:

Money is the devil of all times, yet it's pretty precious, valuable, worthy of respect, but Morrie taught me that:

another lesson about love! Not surprising at all, because buying new expensive things in hope to substitute the longing for love in our hearts is not the solution.
All in all, wealth can't buy happiness and health. It's a life fact, but many chose to give it a mess!

The 3rd lesson on living:

What makes a perfect life? Is it great achievements, cheerful moments, or huge income. Maybe all of these together, and perhaps none of them, but Morrie has an adorable idea, he said: 

 Here is a clever hint of how to be part of the ocean.

The 4th lesson on teachers:

Teachers like the ocean of life, they appear massive and risky, but they have great treasures within them. They have an endless impact of their beliefs on generations of young lives, "they to be honoured than parents because they teach the art of living well".

"Teacher to the last"

 that what Morrie wanted to be written on his grave stone. Indeed, it was true, his principles reached thousands of people in the rolling seas of life.

Finally, Tuesdays With Morrie is a tiny book with immense moral reflections, every time I read it, I find something new that startles me, and sharing these lessons with you made me feel like I'm part of the ocean too.