Essay on Morrie's Gift of Teaching

“Tuesdays with Morrie”, by Mitch Albom, is a nonfiction retelling of a student’s meetings with his former mentor. Mitch, now a corporate lapdog, revisits one of his old college professors after he hears that he has contracted ALS, a terminal disease with no known cure. Mitch and his old professor, Morrie, discuss Morrie’s life every tuesday, and these talks continuously make Mitch a better person than who he was. Throughout this book many different themes are touched upon. One of these such theme is the theme, and also Morrie’s saying, “Love or Perish”. Throughout the book Morrie regularly hammers in the point that to live without love, is to not live at all. Morrie is able to explain to Mitch that the essence of love is the reason which

At his end Morrie came to the realization that death is natural and one should accept this and focus on the essentials, living as if this day was the last. He iterates this in his line “To know you’re going to die, and to be prepared for it at any time… that way you can actually be more involved in your life while you’re living” (Albom 81). Morrie believes that people lived today like they might die tomorrow people will care less about material things and by extent they should be less greedy and kinder. While I can agree with his logic as I follow it, I cannot accept that this would work in reality. This train of thought isn’t common for a reason. The only people I know of who think like Morrie Suggests are reckless people in stories. When I read enough of the Fourth Tuesday this idea made me stop to imagine life like this. Personally, it lead to a train of thought questioning the point of life. Try as I might I had no answer, let alone one as simple as 42. I later realized when writing this line that this is likely why we seem to avoid the topic of death as it brings up too many questions about life that people don’t have answers to. These questions can be dangerous to those with a less stable mindset. This is why I cannot support this chapter in the textbook of Morrie’s final

Community & Compassion: How the World has Changed Over the Years Modern ideals can have negative effects on the world. In the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, an old man named Morrie is diagnosed and dies of ALS; which is a terribly debilitating disease that slowly paralyses its victims until the body is deprived of oxygen. Through his death Morrie is doing what he did best : teaching that life without love or empathy is worthless. This book is poignant, it takes the reader on a journey through life, death and the gray area in between. The values that Morrie embodies ring true universally--community, diversity, and compassion, ideals that characterize our human existence.

Mitch became so fascinated by Morrie’s philosophies that he began jotting down notes and even recording Morrie. With each passing day Morrie becomes increasingly ill. After Morrie’s death, Mitch regains contact with his own brother who is battling with cancer in Spain.

Through society as a civilization we are constantly being reminded of death. In Tuesdays with Morrie, the author, Mitch Albom, conveys the story of his professor, Morrie Schwartz, whom is dealing with a life threatening disease. In his life Mitch is so caught up materialistic possessions that he begins to lose focus on the true meaning in life. After this realization Mitch comes in contact with Morrie and writes down on a piece of paper a list, “death, fear, aging, greed, marriage, family, society, forgiveness, and a meaningful life.”(66) This list signifies different life lessons that Mitch knew of, but seemed to have forgotten. The first lesson on the list was death. Through society, as a civilization, we are constantly being reminded of death. With these constant reminders we have had to understand that death is a natural occurrence, but have we actually ever come to terms with the concept of death? Morrie, society, and my own outlook on the concept of death all have different features that together could form a better understanding of death.

As Mitch arrives for his first visit with Morrie since he was in college, he thinks, “Morrie, this new, withered version of a man I had once known so well, was smiling in the car, hands folded in his lap, waiting for me to emerge,” (27). Mitch and Morrie were very close in college, and the fact that even a small amount of the bond they once had still exists twenty years later speaks to the depth and strength of their relationship. When they start speaking, it’s almost as if no time had passed; their conversation flows effortlessly as Morrie shares his accumulated wisdom. The love within this bond helps Morrie stay positive through his last days, and gave him a purpose, even while his body is deteriorating. During one of his last visits with Morrie, he and Mitch are talking about family.

Tuesdays with Morrie revolves around the transcendent student-mentor relationship between Mitchell Albom, a workaholic sports writer and his former Sociology professor Morrie Schwartz. During his college years, Mitch develops a student-mentor relationship with his professor Morrie which quickly becomes a close friendship. However, in spite of assurances to the contrary, Mitch neglects to stay in touch with Morrie. Morrie, as we come to find out begins to slowly manifest signs of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and as of the time the two finally reconnect, is dying. Regretful of the lost time and of the state in which the relationship is renewed, Mitch resolves to visit Morrie regularly and give him an opportunity to teach his final lessons by recording their discussion of such important lifelong issues as death, fear, aging greed, marriage, family, society, forgiveness, and a meaningful life”(p 66), as well as to say goodbye.

4. Tuesday with Morrie is now one of my favorite books because I enjoy books who teach life lessons. This book is valuable because anyone can relate to this book. We can apply these lessons to our daily lives by appreciating what circumstances we are given. These lessons aren’t just about death. It is about love and not taking advantage our precious life. Death doesn’t have to be a negative concept. Tuesday with Morrie can help other by staying strong through deaths or any life

“ An old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson.” This is the attention grabbing phrase on the cover of Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie. Where a former college student reconnects with his beloved dying professor. It is set with the foreshadowed last class of Morrie’s life. Once Albom found out of Morrie’s crippling diagnosis of Lou Gehrig’s Disease or ALS, they eventually meet every Tuesday to talk about life. Mitch Albom’s telling of the meaning of life through Morries final days gives thought to the motif of love and living. Each Tuesday is given a main, consequential focus. The understanding of love and living is shown the most in the first, fifth, and ninth Tuesday.

The writer furthermore discussed how the story went through and how Morrie inspired Mitch and taught him life lessons that he will bring throughout his lifetime. Moreover, each chapters of the book were discussed and the essence of some of the chapters was also talked about–on the first chapter they talked about the World. Also, some of the other aspects of life they reflected were “Feeling Sorry for Yourself,” “Regrets,” “Death,” “Family,” “Emotions,” and “Forgiveness.” The writer of the article also stated his favorite topic which was Death as well as the quote which struck him the most which is” Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” He expounds why he loved the quote and what it meant to him. Moving on, the writer talked about Love’s power–the chapter which was about family. He gave explanation about what Morrie quoted– “Love each other or perish”. He stated that the people who are there in your life to protect you is more powerful than anything else. This was the part when the writer also expounded how this topic had a great impact to the author of the book since he was consumed with money and his career before both men started their talks about the true meaning of life.

By meeting with his former professor, Mitch Albom is able to take a look in on his life and learn things that took Morrie years to learn. Overall I thought that Tuesdays with Morrie was a great and interesting novel. Out of all the lessons taught to Mitch by Morrie, my favorite would have to be that you should look at life in a unique

Tuesday with Morrie is a book about the life lessons Morrie taught his favorite student, Mitch. Morrie was a teacher most of his life but he didn’t teach his most important lesson until his last six months on earth while battling ALS and losing to the terminal illness. Mitch is a young man that does not expect his life to change so drastically has he spends each Tuesday with Morrie in his study. Each Tuesday Morrie and Mitch share stories, laughs, and tears as Mitch documents every moment with him. Mitch finds himself learning more from Morrie than he ever has being a student in his classroom. The subject Mitch was being taught by Morrie was The Meaning of Life and Mitch was luckily documenting it all and sharing it with the world, teaching readers the lessons of life Morrie has to teach. Morrie turns the dying experience into a learning experience for himself and the loved ones around him.

“Love each other or perish” (Albom 91). This is one of Morrie Schwartz's favorite aphorisms that he used when teaching people just some of the great lessons of life. Morrie Schwartz is an old man that has been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and only has a limited amount of time to live. He taught the greatest lessons of life, as he knows from experience. Even though he has since passed, Morrie’s lessons and teachings still live on. People need to learn some of the lessons that he taught. His lessons are taught in the novel known as Tuesdays with Morrie. Many of these words of wisdom came out of his extensive experiences in life. Morrie teaches many people how to live through living a life without regrets, dying, death, and how it affects us, and money and the more important things in life.

Life is when a flower finally blooms after months of waiting, uncovering its inner beauty. Death is having forgotten about the plant and the petals start to wilt, never to be the same again. In Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie, humans learn the important life lesson to fully accept themselves and seek individuality when death is imminent. Themes about society, emotions and existence are taught by Morrie Schwartz, an elderly man on the threshold of death to his prized pupil Mitch Albom and to readers as well.

The 4th Tuesday, Morrie and Mitch talked about death. “Once you learn to die, you learn to Live”, was the lesson shared (p. 82). Once we learn to die, we can focus on what and who is most important in our lives. Allowing ourselves to re-evaluating life and everything in it. Keeping those who really matter in our life and getting rid of those who don’t. This lesson related to terms and phases in the relational dissolution process and the social exchange theory. Ch. 10.3 focused on relationship de-escalation and termination. The intrapsychic phase is when we privately evaluate the relationship and our partner. Morrie explains we need to come to terms with dying then re-evaluate our life. The social exchange theory suggest that we look at the cost and rewards when choosing what relationships mean most.