Tuesdays with Morrie

Tuesdays with Morrie- An old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson.
Author: Mitch Albom
Reviewed by: Preeti Dave

Tuesdays with Morrie is a book which beautifully depicts the relationship between a teacher and a
student. It tells what teaching can be beyond the textbook teachings, in real terms. It teaches us the
values and the true ways of living life.


The story revolves around 2 people: Morrie, the teacher, or the coach, as named by his student, Mitch.
Morrie used to Mitch in Mitch’s graduation. They were at very good terms with each other during
college. But, they lost contact after Mitch passed out from the college. Morrie was a very lively person.
He was always engaged in some sort of activities like dancing, singing, and teaching. He just did not sit
idle anytime. But, suddenly at the age of around 70, he was trapped in a disease called ALS(Amyotrophic
Lateral Sclerosis) wherein the person’s body parts stop functioning one by one. Mitch was busy in his
own life until the day when Morrie was interviewed by a TV producer. Mitch was taken aback when he
heard Morrie was going to die soon. He decided to visit Morrie.

Then started Mitch’s visits to Morrie. Morrie’s legs had stopped working. He was using a wheelchair.
Morrie was very happy to see Mitch and then the teaching sessions started. They used to sit together
every Tuesday. Morrie discussed everything starting from life, money, love, trust, forgiveness and finally
death.

The obvious thing that could be seen was that though Morrie could see his death around him, he
wanted to enjoy life to the fullest. Many people used to visit him. He preferred listening to them, to
their sorrows instead of telling his own (though his were of greater intensity). He talked about love. How
important is it to love and to be loved. He also talked about forgiveness. It is more important to forgive
yourself than to forgive others. Morrie talked about detaching oneself from the other things which are
not going to be eternal. Instead, if you want to get out of something, just go deep into it and then think
that ‘yes’ I can come out of it. It is far better than the fear of not feeling things, and is of course a source
of immense joy.

He also talked about money. One should not run for money and overlook other things, as it is not money
but love and care what makes you as a person on a whole.

And finally they talked about Death. Morrie told Mitch how he feels when he cannot even do the basic
things on his own. He was dependent for each and every thing. However, he was enjoying that too. He
compared the feeling of being dependent to the way a small child is also dependent. He started living
life as that of a small kid all over again. He just wanted to live each and every breath he took to the
fullest and wanted Mitch also to live life the way he did so that his life gets a meaning to it. So they had
discussions on this for hours every Tuesday.

And finally one day Morrie goes away but leaves behind a meaning to his life so that everybody
remembers him in a good sense and so did they.

The one line which touches our soul is “If you learn how to die, you learn how to live”. It is a beautiful
book which, if interpreted in a correct way, teaches us to be optimistic, to be a good listener always, to
forgive and love others, to culture ourselves, in short, to LIVE LIFE.