Fear of death is a phenomenon that exists in all animals including humans, the only difference is how each person reacts to their anxiety and fear. But why are people afraid of death? Because of love, people love everything that they own, and they do not want to forfeit them; however, they know they cannot make any changes since their life is going toward the end. There are two major perspectives when people know about their death; one is being desperate and unable to accept the fact, and the other is cherishing everything in front of him/her. There are no absolute right or wrong ideas about confronting death, people’s attitude is the one that determines what is right or wrong. “Tuesday with Morrie” is a meaningful book that teaches us about life and death, Morrie, who shares his life and how he can be so calm when he confronts death, is the one that is interviewed by Mitch Albom, author of the book. As we know, life and death are two opposite concepts, but they are closely related at the same time. Most people including me might have some inexplicable of fear death, that is because we usually do not want to face this negative question. Death is the thing that we have to face one day, but we do not know what to do when the advent of death. Morrie once stated “When you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” (Albom 30) Saying in vernacular, it means we only need to be prepared for death, then you would not be afraid of death, but it is difficult to implement. So I think what Morrie tries to express is we must cherish and live in the moment while we are still alive, otherwise, regrets and mistakes we’re memories. However, that does not mean Morrie’s thoughts are correct, as I mentioned before, every person has a different perspective of life; they live in different ways and have different thoughts of one thing whether it is good or not.
In today’s age, people have already forgotten many things; they pay too much attention to work, social status, and wealth just like Mitch Albom, who only cares about himself. But after Mitch met again with Morrie, his life had a huge transformation from that moment. After I read “Tuesday with Morrie”, I learned many things about the meaning of life. There are three of Morrie’s most significant messages for me that concern the meaning of life. First, live in the moment and cherish everything you have, we, as people, easily forget one thing when we finally have it. Because it is more like an achievement when you gain what you want and then you move forward to the next goals. If people can deeply understand we are going to die in one day, we will not waste time on meaningless or physical things instead we are going to pay more attention to spiritual or mental stuff. For example, love, love is a concept that you cannot use money or authority to possess, you have to pay your sincere to other people. In a busy society, many parents spend lots of time making money to satisfy children’s physical enjoyment, but they forget to mentally fulfill children which could lead children to have a malformation childhood. Morrie once stated “Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness” (Albom 125) No matter how rich you are, there is still something that you cannot do or do not have the ability to do. It’s not about money or power; it is your attitude and how you face one question. When parents become older, they will realize what they have pursued is meaningless. In the journey of life, we will find out that material pursuit is insufficient compared to your whole life; cherishing everything that you own can enrich yourself.
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Next, Morrie once declares “Love each other or perish” (Albom 149). Love is part of your life, the difference is if you pay out or accept love. In the world, no one can survive without getting help from other people; we sometimes need to depend on others when we have troubles. The word “perish” from the quote represents a truth, if you do not have love, your life is going to end with pain; however, if you have family, you will not be in that pain because you know they can give you support. In the book, Mitch is a busy and heartless person at the beginning of the book, but after Mitch meets with Morrie again and again. Mitch finally understands to spend time to take care of his love when Morrie is at the end of his life. “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.” (Albom 52) The quote represents that Mitch finally understands what love is and how it works; he is no longer a selfish person. For Mitch, the most important people in his life are Morrie and his girlfriend, so Mitch tries his best to fix their relationship. However, Mitch cannot make any changes about Morrie’s death no matter how hard he tries. In the end, Mitch does learn how to love people, but the price is losing one of the most important in his life.
Last but not least, when you know how to die, you learn how to live. Everyone is afraid of death including Morrie, but he has a different attitude about facing death. Morrie believes death is a mournful thing, but living unhappy is also mournful. Morrie knows his day is coming soon, but he does not complain himself instead he cherishes every day that he is still alive. “We can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there.” (Albom 174) Morrie knows he does not have too much time, so he makes himself live in other people’s memory. He creates many memories before he dies, which sounds easy to accomplish but difficult to take action on because not everyone can have a positive attitude when they are facing death. Most people I believe will not have a good attitude when they have a similar health condition as Mitch, they might think something that they have still not accomplished yet and make themselves regret and angry. Mitch thinks when we are taking serious about death; we can have a better understanding of ourselves and other people because we cherish every moment and pay more attention to others and ourselves. In modern society, the emergence of mobile phones and the Internet causes alienation between people, people no longer have as much sense of trust as before because people can communicate without being face to face, it also provides people with a platform that masks themselves. Thus, the progress of society can result in pros and cons; the pros are making people’s lives more convenient, and the cons are people no longer cherish the existing moments.
In conclusion, Morrie no longer exists physically in the world, but he will remain alive mentally or live in our memory. I learned a lot from the book, especially about facing death, even if I do not like death the day is still going to come. I understand that discuss about death is ominous, but that everyone will inevitably happen sooner or later. Our destination is death, but the world will not stop for you or anyone; death only makes your world stop but not others. Many people are wasting time and not making progress, they still live in the past, which is the time that is not going to come back. Therefore, we should live in the moment and try to do what we want to do instead of waiting until tomorrow or the future, and get along with every person that goes into our life, no matter if the person is important or not to us, the thing does not leave regrets behind you.
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