Today, we all have gathered here to discuss how to make each moment matter; and how we can seize each day of our life.
I want to share a story about a beloved old college professor whom I had adored back in college. He passed away from Lou Gehrig's disease commonly known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS. I had not spoken to him in 16 years since I had left college. I was too busy chasing after what I thought was the 'meaning of life'- accomplishment and stacking up my achievements. I ended up going to see him and what I thought would be a one-time visit and I was so fascinated with how he was living his life even though he was dying from this terrible disease.
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From the first Tuesday that we reunited, I realized that I had to go back every Tuesday, until the thirteenth Tuesday. All these Tuesdays were the remaining time left in his life trying to get the answer to that very simple question - what do we know when we're looking death in the face that puts all of life into perspective?
Fast forward to the final conversation that Morrie and I had. By this point, he was very weak in bed. I went to see him and he asked to hold my hand. He asked me a favor for later after he passed away. He wants me to come to visit his grave. But not the way everybody else does, he said. He told me not to just go there and put flowers and then leave like most people do. However, when I have free time I should come and bring a blanket, and sandwiches and stay for a while and talk about my life I thought he wanted me to have a picnic there. Then, I realized that it's like right now, Morrie talks, and I listen. After he passed away, it was time for me to do the talking and he listened.
I realized in that last sentence was everything Morrie was trying to teach me every Tuesday. It's very simple if you live your life as he did, making time, giving yourself, and sharing with other people. Then when you're gone you are not gone, you live on inside the heads and hearts of everybody you inspired. They can talk to you after you're gone not because they believe in ghosts, but because you spend time putting your voice inside them. You gave them something to remember you.
This is how as Morrie said death ends a life but not the relationship. You must invest in those relationships if you want to go on after you're gone. When you die, you better plan on being 100 percent dead, because your money is gone. But the one thing that you had that makes you distinctly you, that voice is a sum of everything you've seen. That voice, that's inside you, you didn't spend any time giving away, you were too busy taking to feel alive. So, if you want a little bit of immortality, it is not in how big your accomplishments are. But I believe it is in every small act of kindness that you share with other people that makes long-lasting memory that affects them eternally.
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