Book Review : Tuesdays With Morrie

 

Title: Tuesdays With Morrie

Author: Mitch Albom
Genre: Biography
Source: Self-purchased copy

Synopsis:
Tuesdays With Morrie is a short account of the discussions between a 78 year old Professor Morrie Schwartz and his student Mitch Albom during the last 14 weeks of his life.

Morrie was Mitch's favourite professor and on the day of his graduation, he had promised Morrie that he would be in touch with him. He could not keep his promise and it was only after 16 years of his graduation that he met Morrie, that too after he saw him on a television show and came to know of his medical condition. The union strike at the newspaper he used to work in as sports writer gave him ample time to meet Morrie every Tuesday and thereon started the lessons on life. Life as viewed by a person on the bridge between life and death.

Discovery:

In the year 2007, heard about it from a colleague who was also a book-lover. Even got a copy of the e-book from him, somehow never happened to read until now. As I am on a reading spree this year and have taken the challenge to complete 30 books, am picking up all in my to-read list.I feel thankful to the author for bringing this book to the world.

My view:

The book touched my heart, moved me to tears. We all know these life lessons, but we forget it in the rush of our life -trying to get better job, better salary, better car, better mobile ... the list goes on. The book draws back upon us the importance of relationships, love and family.

Morrie had an optimistic outlook towards life, he had a unique way of looking at things. For example, we all spend much of our time pitying our-self, and Morrie also in his last days with that deadly disease used to have self-pity. He could not escape it, we all can't escape it, but he had put a limit to it. Few tearful minutes and then put a stop - no brooding over for days together. A nice concept to inculcate in our lives, isn't it?

Another beautiful example, preparing yourself for death. Ask yourself if today is the day-am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be? We all have a lot of things in mind that we want to do. But we keep postponing it, and one day regret for not doing it. This simple act reminds us that today is the day to act." Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live" -so true.

The lesson on forgiving was something that brought tears in my eyes. We bear so many grudges against our loved-ones, keep on recounting the bad they did to us. But one day when they are gone, will we be able to forgive ourself for not forgiving them.

The only thing that seemed a little weird to me was the concept of "living funeral" . I somehow could not find myself agreeing to such an idea.
 

Recommendation: This book is a must-read. It’s something to be read , then re-read and then re-re-read. It’s a wake-up call to look back at our lives and decide our priorities, complete the most important to-do's of our life, to live a meaningful life, the one we will be proud of when we look back at it on our death bed.

My Favorite Quotes:

• 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.
• If you really want it, then you'll make your dream happen.
• The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.
• Everyone knows they're going to die, but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.
• Don't cling to things, because everything is impermanent.
• You have to find what's good and true and beautiful in your life as it is now.
• On love and marriage- If you don't respect the other person, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don't know how to compromise, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can't talk openly about what goes on between you, you're gonna have a lot of trouble. And if you don't have a common set of values in life, you're gonna have a lot of trouble.