"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 yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."
I wasn't aware of what Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom was about when I picked up this book in the library two weeks ago—all I knew was how widely talked about it had been and so it caught my attention. As it turns out, this book is a memoir of a dying professor written by his ex-student. After more than a decade of not meeting each other, Mitch Albom found his way back to his old professor from Brandeis University, Morrie Schwartz. Mitch had his final project with Morrie during his teacher's final time battling amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 1995. It was like their final thesis together with the subject of life, classes held every Tuesday.
""There's a big confusion in this country over what we want versus what we need," Morrie said. "You need food, you want a chocolate sundae. You have to be honest with yourself. You don't need the latest sports car, you don't need the biggest house. The truth is, you don't get satisfaction from those things. You know what really gives you satisfaction?...Offering others what you have to give...I don't mean money, Mitch. I mean your time. Your concern. Your storytelling. It's not so hard."
I closed this book with a face full of tears. I have never been a big fan of biography books, but Tuesdays With Morrie has touched me from the very beginning. It is not a book you seek to feel good, nor that it is something to comfort—to me personally, this book acted more like a moving reminder, an eye-opener that advised me not to take everything for granted and then had me latch it onto my mind.
Morrie, I believe, was an amazing person to get to know. He had the humor and wisdom of a grandfather, but also the spirit and charm of a teacher. Reading this book felt like spending time with your precious grandpa and also some parts of his life before the streaks of gray hair. It was a legacy, perfectly captured in conversations about life, death, love, greed, and stuff.
"Yes, I said, but if aging were so valuable, why do people always say, “Oh, if I were young again.” You never hear people say, “I wish I were sixty-five.”
He smiled. “You know what that reflects? Unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that haven’t found meaning. Because if you’ve found meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to see more, do more. You can’t wait until sixty-five."
I know I'm so late in finding out how precious this book is. I just hope that more people will discover what a gem this book (and Morrie) is.
Actual rating: 5★
0 Comments