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Lifes Greatest Lesson

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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 …show more content…

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

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