Analyzing Morrie Lou Gehrig's Disease

“Death is as natural as life, It’s part of the deal I made.” (Albom, 164) Tuesdays with Morrie is about an elderly man dying of ALS teaching people how to live. Morrie teaches people to live life through accepting death, showing love to loved ones before they’re gone and that showing emotion is all right and important.

“We can leave the mountain anytime we want but those with ALS are prisoners in their own body”-Alex Williams. People with ALS start losing their ability to move as the disease goes through their body. In the Book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom Morrie Schwartz has ALS and he tries to give away all of his wisdom before he dies. Morrie teaches people to live life through showing love to family, not hiding or being scared of aging and accepting that Death is natural.

To begin with, the first important aphorism that Morrie is “Once you learn how to die you learn how to live”. He was saying if they knew they’re going to die they would think and live differently. In fact, Morrie said “everyone knows they’re going to die ‘’ he said again but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently’’(125).

Lou Gehrig, one of the greats in baseball, had his amazing record taken from him during the 1939 season when he gave the umpire the cards of the players and announced he would no longer play the game. The reason for this was Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis disease or ALS. This disease later became known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. ALS was first discovered by French Neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot in 1869. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis affects the brain and spinal cord nerve cells. “A-myo-trophic means no muscle nourishment” (ALS association: What Is ALS?).

“A-myo-trophic comes from the Greek language ‘A’ meaning no or negative. ‘Myo’ refers to muscle, and “Trophic” means nourishment-’No muscle nourishment’... ‘Lateral’ identifies the areas in a person's spinal cord where portions of the nerve cells that signal and control the muscles are located.” (“What is ALS?”). Literally, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis means no muscle nourishment in the spine. In this disease, nerve cells in both the brain and spinal cord slowly die over a period of time. The cells, referred to as motor neurons, control the muscles throughout the body, resulting in death or paralyzation as they degenerate. At any given time, ALS can strike anyone. It is not contagious, however, in about 10% of cases, ALS runs in the family making it somewhat hereditary (“What is amyotrophic lateral sclerosis?”). “The incidence of ALS is two per 100,000 people” (“Facts You Should Know). Most of the time, Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), acts on middle-aged and older adults, however there have been noted cases of patients much younger. Considering that a friend or family member can be diagnosed with this horrible disease, everyone should pitch into ALS charities in hope to find a

At this part of the book Morrie is very sick, and close with the object of dying. He asks Mitch why the whole world is so afraid of dying, and tells him, “Once you learn how to die you learn how to live.” He says that the world is just walking around as if we are sleepwalking, and the only way someone could look at the world differently is realizing that they will die one day. The meaning is pretty obvious in what he says. “Once you learn that you are going to die, you will start to live life to the fullest.” Someone does not have to be in a situation where they might die soon in order to be able to live their life happily. I do not agree with this advice, and it does not connect to my life. This statement or aphorism is not something I agree with because someone can know how to live their life to the fullest if they are not dying. I know many people who are not close to death but are living life to the fullest and know that they live and love life sufficiently. I do not take my life for granted, and I am not very close with death. I do know that I will die someday, but that is not one of my main reasons that I feel that way about

Imagine you are a 78-year-old man, a beloved professor from Brandeis University. Every day you take notice of the increased difficulty of breathing, more so than the usual, or the out-of-breath feeling from climbing a flight of stairs. About two or three weeks later, you start to feel the muscles in your body cramping up, even while partaking in slight activity, And then you know it’s serious after you gave up dancing. After multiple testing, your results come back and you have ALS, also known as Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that causes devastating debilitation and raises many ethical questions. Many of these questions revolve around quality of life and end of life issues. ALS, specifically, complicates theses issues because of the natural progression of the disease. Patients gradually loose their ability to move, breath and communicate, while retaining, for the most part, their cognitive function. There is currently no cure for the disease and very little in the forms of treatment options, with the average life span after an ALS diagnosis only about three to five years with a small portion of the population living beyond 10 years. As a result, caring an ASL patient can put a lot of stress on their caregivers. Consequently, there is also the risk to the patients, who wishes can be ignored due to their inability to advocate for themselves.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease is a very progressive chronic disease. Lou Gehrig’s disease is named after a famous baseball player who developed the disease in 1939 as noted by New York State (2012). Lou Gehrig’s disease is a chronic disease that breaks down the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. The brain and spinal cord control the muscles throughout the body and if they are being destroyed the muscles will not move or work properly. According to New York State (2012), the disease is most common in people between the ages of 40-70, and as many as thirty thousand Americans suffer from the disease at any given time.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, otherwise known as ALS or Lou Gherig’s disease, is a neurological disease which attacks nerve cells causing them to die and leave the muscles paralyzed. People with ALS lose strength and control of muscles, weakening them and causing them to start to wear away. Eventually the muscles stop working all together and cause paralysis in places such as arms, legs and other parts of the body. When the nerve cells in the diaphragm and chest wall are attacked and the muscles are paralyzed, the person can lose the ability to breathe without assistance, or sometimes at all. Respiratory failure is the cause of death for most people with ALS. Currently there are approximately 2500-3000 Canadians that are living with ALS and according to www.als.ca “Every day two or three Canadians die of the

Morrie said "The truth is…once you learn how to dies, you learn how to live." (82) Morrie says this on the fourth Tuesday in response to Mitch's question about how one can prepare for death. Morrie responds with a Buddhist philosophy that everyday, one must ask the bird on his shoulder if that day is the day he will die. The philosophy serves as a metaphor for his awareness to his death that may come at any moment. The bird itself is symbolic of Morrie's consciousness that his death is fast-approaching, and his readiness to accept it when it comes. He wants Mitch to realize that the bird is on everyone's shoulder at every moment in their life, no matter how old or young they are. When he tells Mitch that one must know how to die before they can know how to live, he meant that one must accept the possibility of one's own death before he can truly appreciate what he has on earth.

ALS,a nervous system disease that weakens muscles and impacts physical functions. Morrie was diagnosed with ALS at the age of 77,he knew he was going to die so in his time left he wanted to teach people about life. In the memoir Tuesdays with Morrie, Morrie teaches people about our culture,how love goes on,and about accepting death. Firstly Morrie teaches people about how people in our culture are self centered.

Sogyal Rinpoche stated “When you start preparing for death you soon realize that you must look into your life now...and come to face the truth of yourself. Death is like a mirror in which the true meaning of life is reflected.” Death is imminent. Many people today fear death for various reasons. Some people are able to accept it, where others deny its existence. Some people spend their lives working towards the coming of their death, and their life thereafter, where others spend there lives doing everything they possibly can to make the most of their time on earth. In Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom, the lead character Morrie Schwartz was diagnosed with the fatal disease Lou Gerrig’s Disease, also know as ALS. Although many people

     “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” As Henry Adams stated, and is the summary of the impervious bond between the characters Mitch and Morrie, in Tuesdays with Morrie. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease is a form of motor neuron diseases. It is a rare disorder in which the nerves that control muscular activity degenerate within the brain and spinal cord. What results is weakness and wasting away of the muscles. The cause is unknown. About one to two cases of ALS are diagnosed annually per 100,000 people in the US. (Lou) Sufferers will notice weakness in the hands and arms accompanied by wasting of the

Morrie Schwartz is a retired sociology professor that suffered from ALS. Morrie is perceived as a positive, upbeat man. He remained this way even throughout the progression of his disease. Morrie did not have a certain