Book Review: Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

Tuesdays with Morrie

by Mitch Albom

This book is a true story first published in 1997 takes the scenario of a course attended by one student and his favorite teacher every Tuesday

It tells the story of Mitch Albom reuniting with his favorite teacher Morrie Schwartz after losing contact for around 16 years! Unfortunatly Mitch reconnected with Morrie when he saw him on Tv interviewed about his fatal disease the ALS or what is known as Lou Gehrig's Disease ( refered to the famous baseball star Lou Gehrig who got it around 1930)

 The ALS attacks the nerves in the body gradually paralyzing its parts until it hits sensitive organs as lungs so you can no longer take a breath or as throat muscles so you get choked by food..and both are terrible deaths..

I was just discussing this book with my friends and they asked me about the last lecture by Randy Pausch and I said well every book has its beauty where Randy was trying to teach us how to live, Morrie was trying to teach us how to die !

if we were in that spot of as Mitch called it "crossing the bridge" how will we interact with life matters ?

The reason why this book has moved me to tears is that I'm living the same story with my Math teacher at high school. I've heard about this disease from the Japanese drama "One liter of tears" which was a piece of art representing a girl's journey with this disease till her last day. However, whats on tv is nothing like living the experience with someone used to occupy a part of your memory. My teacher used to be an active smart teacher who believed in me and always put up good words in front of other people although she was very strict in classes and that's what I always admire in a teacher. I talked with a lady I know from her relatives and she said "no one knew what she had; in fact this disease is scarily wide spread but very rare in a small country like UAE.." and still there she is with a smile raising her 6 kids mashallah.

Now I'm left with thoughts of wanting to see her again but I wonder if I'll ever find the courage to do so.

The books discussed the ideas frightening this generation like death, relationships, marriage, money ..

and Morrie focused on loving and forgiving repeating those two words again and again in his speeches.

Picture from Tuesday class

The book gave these thoughts an access to my brain

• is it worth it to hate a person and never give him a chance to explain or move on?
• My grandmother constant complain about her knees; how hard it is for someone who used to run one day?
• Family is a bless and we shouldn't hesitate when it comes to starting a new one
• Go back to Nature, technology is sucking the life out of us
• We are equal as long as we share birth and death (As Morrie once mentioned)

Beautiful piece, easy language, meaningful advices and a touching story!

 

peace,

Amna