29. Tuesdays with Morrie

Posted by T. T. and P. R. in June 2019

Morie Schwartz (1916-1995) was a Professor of sociology at Brandeis University, Massachusetts. In his seventies, health problems appeared and his illness was finally diagnosed as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The doctor told him that it is terminal and guessed that he had two years left.

With this news, Morrie thought deeply about how to live in the remaining days of his life. He wrote many aphorisms about living near death; for example, “Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others”. He shared them with his friends, and an article about his aphorisms appeared in the Boston Globe newspaper. Then, the host of the  popular TV show “Night-line”, Ted Koppel, visited Morrie’s home for an interview, and Morrie then appeared on this show.

A student of Morrie, Mitch Albom, happened to watch the show. While he didn’t know about Morrie’s fatal illness, he called Morrie, and dashed to his home immediately. Morrie accepted Mitch as his student once again, and suggested that he should come on Tuesday. Thereafter, Mitch visited Morrie on Tuesdays, fourteen times in all,  till just before his death. On every visit, Morrie and Mitch talked about various topics of life. The most important thing in life, Morrie told to Mitch, was to learn how to give out love, and how to let it come in.

At present, our world is almost the same as a patient suffering from a fatal illness. To diagnose the illness correctly and try to cure it is a very urgent matter. It will not be improbable that the time left to our humankind is fairly short. However, present people do not think about how to live in those precious days that remain. What is important is not the length of the period but its quality. As Morrie said, we have to learn how to give out love, and how to let it come in.

Morrie’s story above is taken from a nonfiction publication entitled “Tuesdays with Morrie”, written by Mitch Albom and published by Broadway Books in 1997. The book topped the New York Times Non-Fiction Bestsellers in 2000. If some readers inspired by Morrie’s attitude facing a sentence of death, and then seriously thought about their own attitude facing the end of the existence of humankind, Mitch’s success as a bestselling writer will be a reasonable reward for his contributions to future generations.