Morrie Schwartz was a 78-year-old man with a tremendous amount of courage, wisdom, and many life lessons to offer the world. He shared his knowledge with his students as he taught sociology at Brandeis University. His diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) opened his eyes to many things in life that he never thought twice about before. He began to appreciate the small things such as time, family, love, and forgiveness. He also had the opportunity to share his lessons on the Nightline television show with Ted Koppel. This reunited him with a dear student of his, Mitch Albom after he witnessed his presence on the TV show and discovered his diagnosis. Mitch began to visit Morrie every Tuesday and they would talk about the world, life, regrets, death, family, emotions, money, and much more up until the day that Morrie passed away from his disease. Tuesdays with Morrie was their final thesis together and it is how Morrie still lives on to this day by educating others on the importance of life and helping others through life struggles.
While reading this book it triggered a lot of emotion. I felt deeply saddened by Morrie’s disease and how it slowly took everything from him. From not being able to walk, to not being able to use the bathroom on his own, to barely being able to talk, and then to not being able to breathe. Even though I felt sad, Morrie was the opposite. He would bounce right back if he was feeling down which was reassuring. I also felt content that so many people reached out to him and praised him for being such a great person. He always put others first and aimed to help people and others recognized that. I was also happy that Morrie got to do one last thing that meant everything to him. He gets to live on through others as they read his story and hopefully, others will benefit from his story as well. The ending was heartbreaking, but I was also satisfied because he went peacefully, the way that he said he wanted to go.
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Morrie’s story correlates to Human Relations because he talks about how to improve self-esteem through a positive attitude, communication, values regarding life, forgiveness, and stress. He is also a great example of a true leader. I think that Morrie handled the struggles of ALS because he always had a positive attitude. Without his positive mindset, he wouldn’t have been as strong as he was. This is important because everyone should have this mindset to remain happy and productive even in the toughest times. He also demonstrated how important communication is when it comes to opening and expressing his thoughts and feelings. This is related to what we learned because being open makes it easier for others to understand where we are coming from and what we might be going through. Morrie’s values were a great example of how this story correlates to Human Relations because he had strong values when it came to all the topics discussed including, family, death, emotions, regrets, and forgiving those who may have wronged us to be at peace. All of which are values that we discussed during the chapter. Overall, Morrie’s story depicts the relationship between an instructor and his student who taught him possibilities and how he can grow and succeed throughout life. This also gives Morrie the chance to learn how to accept his fate and understand the true meaning of life. He realized all that he was missing out on in life. Morrie said it best, “Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” Morrie’s advice also leads Mitch to reconnect with his cancer-stricken brother whom he had lost touch with over the years which had been an issue that he struggled with. Even though Mitch lost his “coach,” the relationship that they had remained in his heart, and the relationship with his brother was mended in the process.
Morrie had several amazing quotes that offer great advice and wisdom. One of my favorite quotes was “The truth is, once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” This quote was extremely powerful because it made me realize how much time is wasted worrying about the things that don’t matter and we should be appreciating life itself. We should be focusing on the things that bring us peace and the things that make us happy instead of everything that brings us stress and heartache. Once we realize that we are going to die, we are much more driven to live a fulfilled life. Another quote of Morrie’s that I liked was “There is no such thing as ‘too late’ in life.” I like this because it is motivational. Some people get discouraged that they can no longer follow their dreams because it is too late. That is far from the truth and I liked how Morrie made the point that it is never too late to do anything. Finally, another quote that I enjoyed was “Love wins. Love always wins.” I love this quote because to me it means that love can be a battle but no matter what, love will always win. This was inspirational and a great way to view relationships, especially if there is tension.
The most profound lesson that I learned from Morrie was that we are all the same, despite our differences. Regardless of appearance, race, religion, or gender, we are all more alike than we tend to think. It is important to be accepting of others and view each other in that way, then we would be more eager to come together as a whole and care about others as we care about our own families. It would be a much more loving and caring world and I think that more people need to understand this. Morrie made an excellent point when he stated, “But believe me, when you are dying, you see it is true. We all have the same beginning—birth—and we all have the same end—death. So how different can we be?”
I believe that this book was required for this class because it is an excellent example of human relations through Morrie and his student Mitch. It demonstrates the meaning of life and death by Morrie explaining what truly matters in life as well as how to apply and appreciate those things. On a deeper level, it offers a vision of the relationship between the body and soul. Morrie was not worried about materialistic things. Instead, he was more concerned about others and embracing the world. This was a great story and it was comforting to learn from Morrie’s quotes and understand his life lessons.
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