Tuesdays with Morrie

Outwardly, this book by Mitch Albom is as small and unassuming as its namesake. But open up its plain, cream colored cover and you’ll find an amazingly incredible and inspiring story – the story of Morrie Schwartz.

Morrie was a teacher – a professor of sociology at Brandeis University for over 30 years, to be exact. He spent his life and his career molding young minds, challenging them to be the best they possibly could be. But perhaps his greatest teaching came in the final two years of his life. Morrie was “A Teacher to the Last”, his personal epitaph.

At the age of 78, Morrie Schwartz was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, a disease for which there is no cure. But instead of being bitter and wasting what time he had left, he lived out his life to the absolute fullest by doing what he did best, teaching… only this time the lesson was in how to die.

He shared his story with Nightline, being interviewed three times over the next year by Ted Koppel, at various stages of his deterioration. It was as the first of the interviews aired that Albom, one of his former students, by sheer accident while flipping through channels, found out of his illness and decided to go and see him.

What was, by Albom’s own admission, supposed to be a onetime get-in-and-out-as-quickly-as-you-possibly-can-visit, turned out to be a series of thought-provoking chats about loving, giving and sharing; of sorrow and joy; about forgiveness and responsibility; and of life, death and acceptance.

Incidentally, Tuesdays with Morrie has become the best-selling memoir of all time.

This book will make you laugh and cry. It will challenge you to think about the direction of your own life…where you have been and where you are heading. It will remind you to love and cherish what is truly important (family and friends), and not worry so much about the other stuff.

In the few short hours it takes to read this little 192 page gem, you could gain a whole new perspective on life.Do yourself a favor; read it. You’ll be thankful you did.

The following is an excerpt:

“I heard a nice little story the other day,” Morrie says. He closes his eyes for a moment and I wait.

Okay. The story is about a little wave, 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 is 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 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.’”

I smile. Morrie closes his eyes again.

“Part of the ocean,” he says, “part of the ocean.”