HW 24 - Illness & Dying Book, Part 3

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

Published by Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group; Random House Inc. in 1997

Third 1/3 of the book: Pgs. 129 - 199 (Includes afterword)

Precis of entire book:

The last class of my professor's life took place once a week, on Tuesdays. My professor taught me to do what made me happy. He taught me that what made people happy was sometimes to make others happy, by listening and paying attention to them. He himself was dying, but he wasn't sad or upset about it - he saw it as something that just happened, something that needed to happen. He knew that when he was gone people would still remember him.

Quotes:

Pg. 133: "This is out last thesis together, you know. We want to get it right." 

Response: Throughout this book and others about death, I sense a feeling of urgency to do all these things with someone while you still can, to make sure you get all the time with them you want. There's also the feeling more directly depicted in the quote above - the one of wanting to end on a good note, with all the ends tied up, nothing missing or forgotten. 


Pg. 135: "When Morrie was with you, he was really with you. He looked you straight in the eye, and he listened as if you were the only person in the world. How much better would people get along if their first encounter each day were like this - instead of a grumble from a waitress or a bus driver or a boss?"

Paraphrase: People should really listen to each other, not just pretend to. 


Pg. 151:   MITCH: Remember the book of Job? 
              MORRIE: From the bible?

                MITCH: Right. Job is a good man, but God makes him suffer to test his faith. Takes away     everything he has, his house, his money, his family...
             MORRIE: His health. He makes him sick.
               MITCH: Right. To test his faith. So I was wondering....what you think of that.
            MORRIE: I think God overdid it.

Pg. 162: "Don't let go too soon, don't hang on too long." - Morrie

Response: I like this quote because it applies to the situation in the book, but it also stands well on it's own - people could think of it in different contexts. 

Pg. 193 - 194: 
"Morrie, my name is Mitch Albom. I was a student of yours in the 1970s. I don't know if you remember me."
"How come you didn't call me Coach?"

Response: Mitch wasn't sure if Morrie remembered him, because he forgot that Morrie wasn't a regular person. If he has been a regular person, he would have forgotten about some student he had 20 years or so ago. But he wasn't, he was Morrie, and that's why he remembered.  

Thoughts and experiences in relation to this book's portrayal (in the last 1/3rd) of how people go about being sick and dying:

This part of the book seems to talk a lot about caring for others and being respectful of their feelings. Morrie does this, and he encourages Mitch to do it. I agree with this, and I feel like it's good as a general rule in life, but these type of statements don't seem to have a lot of substance unless their applied to a larger context then everyday life. If you take it day by day, it's pretty simple to try to be nicer to people. However, how can this be applied to one's whole life? Morrie seems to dislike the fact that Mitch is working for people who are rich and don't care about him, but that's not always avoidable. Not everyone can have a job as a professor, and sit around spouting wisdom at people all day. There are things outside of that, and this book doesn't acknowledge that.