Life's Greatest Lesson
"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 muscles (Motor). The weakness
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By the time your life actually winds down, you've spent most of it consumed in trying to be someone you aren't and do things that you aren't meant to do.
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. "Take my condition. The things I am supposed to be embarrassed about now not being able to walk, not being able to wipe my ass, waking up some mornings wanting to cry there is nothing innately embarrassing about them. It's the same for women not being thin enough, or men not being rich enough. It's just what our culture would have you believe. Don't believe
Amyotrophic meaning, “no muscle nourishment” in Greek, lateral meaning where the neurons are in the spinal cord, and sclerosis meaning “scarring.” ALS, often known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease,” named after the New York Yankee who first brought awareness to the disease in the late 1930’s, is a neurodegenerative disease, which affects the neurons in the brain. The nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that are responsible for sending and receiving motor signals progressively die off, causing the deterioration of simple motor skills in patients with ALS, such as walking, talking, and eventually speaking and breathing, however thinking is not affected by ALS. Early symptoms cause the person to slowly lose mobility of limbs, but in a matter of a few years, the person loses the mobility of most of their body and will eventually lose the ability to eat and breath, which will ultimately cause death. ALS deteriorates the patient's body, however does not affect the patient's state of mind or sanity while the rest of the body shuts down. People usually get ALS between the ages of 40 and 70. However, there is a growing trend where athletes are getting ALS in their thirties. ALS can be contributed to genetic predisposition, which means that the gene that is responsible for ALS is already in the person’s DNA. In recent studies, however, it was observed that individuals who have had suffered multiple concussions or any other head trauma are
“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.
Response to change is a major key people’s success in life. Everyday people make decisions on change. The way people act on those obstacles makes or breaks a person. Responding the right way can be one of the most challenging objectives a person may face.
ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease is a classified as a degenerative neurological disorder that inhibits motor neurons in the spinal cord and brain to function properly. This disease eventually results in paralysis and imminent death over a period of time. ALS patients have anywhere from a few months, to a couple years to live after diagnosis since their nervous systems are slowly destroyed, rendering the body useless, and sustaining life impossible.
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).
Sometimes life lessons are learned the hard way. Unfortunately for me, this is how I learned mine. I do not mean to make this sad and depressing, but this is the truth.
In the film A Lesson Before Dying the young African American Jefferson was accused of murdering three innocent men. During the court trial Jefferson’s attorney called him a “hog”. In “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay's poem has a strong message about Racism, Pride, and the struggles of being an african american in the United States. I believe that Jefferson is not a hog, should get treated fairly, and should not have suffered for something he did not do.
Lou Gehrig’s Disease Thesis: Weakness in the hands, arms, legs or slurred speech. Imagine having these symptoms and not knowing what is wrong. Then the most dreaded words are uttered, “You have Lou Gehrig’s Disease”. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), or other wise known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a disease that attacks muscles and brain cells. “ALS was first found in 1869 by French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot,but it wasn’t until 1939 that Lou Gehrig brought national and international attention to the disease” (About).
ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a disease that attacks the muscles and impacts a person’s physical function. Overtime, the symptoms will
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a terminal disease that degenerates the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Motor neurons run from the brain, through the spinal cord, and into the muscles of person; this is what allows a person to have control over voluntary movement. When an individual is diagnosed with ALS, their motor neurons begin to degenerate, thus eradicating their ability to walk, eat, and eventually breathe.
In one to two sentences, what is the single most important thing you learned from this week's reading?
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
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurological disorder that involves the degeneration of motor neurons. Commonly, ALS is referred to as “Lou Grieg’s disease” after the New York Yankee Hall-of-Famer, who was diagnosed with the disease in 1939 (mayo Clinic, 2010). According to the national institute of neurological disorders, ALS is a rapidly developing, consistently progressive, invariably fatal neurological disease that’s attacking the nerve cells needed for controlling voluntary muscles, or movement.” (NINDS, 2010). The muscles go through atrophy, which means the muscles gradually weaken and wasting away. Furthermore, ALS affects the neuromuscular system, which “enables our bodies to move
The book Tuesdays with Morrie, written by Mitch Albom who is a sports journalist, was an international best seller in 1997. Mitch ends up seeing in the news that one of his favorite old professors was diagnosed with ALS, a terminal disease. Mitch sets out to visit Morrie
Throughout our life we will always meet many people that teach us major life lessons,