tuesdays with Morrie

I was watching interviews with Morrie Schwartz when mom came in. She asked me what is it about and got interested after my short but enthusiastic description — so we end up watching these interviews together, stopping for a couple of seconds, so that I can translate interview dialogues into Russian. Outcome. We are done watching, she picks up the phone, has a small talk with someone and tells me that tomorrow we will be traveling to the village which is 117 km away to see my aunty that is preparing for a surgery.
Why?
Because it’s the right thing to do, because it makes sense compared to hundreds of other things that we do on daily basis. More often than not, we tend to postpone some important things coming up with so many excuses: too tired, too much work to do, etc. We are diving into work because it seems to be the only thing that we can control. The question then arises: Are we really living the life? The life that can be called meaningful, valuable and purposeful.
We are involved in trillions of little acts just to keep going. So we don’t get into the habit of standing back and looking at our lives and saying, Is this all? Is this all I want? Is something missing?
How many books and films actually made you think and most importantly act?
If you haven’t found such a powerful book yet, I hope this memoir will become a great discovery for you 📕❤️

Synopsis
“ Tuesdays with Morrie is based on the real-life relationship with author Mitch Albom and his college professor Morrie Schwartz. Morrie had been one of Mitch’s favorite professors in college, and on graduation day, Mitch presented Morrie with a briefcase and a promise to keep in touch. However as time passed, distance and life kept the two from communicating.
One night, as Mitch, now a well-known journalist in Detroit, is watching a Ted Koppel interview on ABC, he sees his old professor as that night’s subject. Morrie has been diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Mitch sees that his professor’s time was growing short and realized he has not kept up his promise to keep in touch. He travels to his old professor’s home and the two reconnect. The conversation is easy as if no time has passed at all. Mitch promises Morrie he will be back. After another visit, he realizes that he still has much to learn from his old professor. They make a pact that Mitch will visit every Tuesday. Morrie agrees to let Mitch record these “final lessons” as the two discuss life, death and everything in between. The lessons from those Tuesday meetings make up the pages of Tuesdays with Morrie.” (taken from GradeSaver).
If you are choosing between reading a book, watching interviews with Morrie Schwartz or watching a film — read the book first!
It will give you a good understanding of Morrie’s lessons. Without being distracted by visuals, without seeing how ALS affects his body but concentrating on his clear mind and his loving heart.
Interviews
Film
Quotes

- The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We’re teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it. Create your own. Most people can’t do it.
- Love wins. Love always wins.
- So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.
- The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. We think we don’t deserve love, we think if we let it in we’ll become too soft. But a wise man named Levine said it right. He said, ‘Love is the only rational act.’
- A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. (Henry Adams)
- Do what the Buddhists do. Every day, have a little bird on your shoulder that asks, ‘Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?’
- Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.
- Don’t cling to things, because everything is impermanent. But detachment doesn’t mean you don’t let the experience penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully. If you hold back on the emotions — if you don’t allow yourself to go all the way through them — you can never get to being detached, you’re too busy being afraid. You’re afraid of the pain, you’re afraid of the grief. You’re afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails.
- If aging were so valuable, why do people always say: “Oh, if I were young again.” You never hear people say, “I wish I were sixty-five.” He smiled. “You know what that reflects? Unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that haven’t found meaning. Because if you’ve found meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to see more, do more. You can’t wait until sixty-five.”
- Wherever I went in my life, I met people wanting to gobble up something new. Gobble up a new car. Gobble up a new piece of property. And then they wanted to tell you about it. ‘Guess what I got? Guess what I got?’ You know how I always interpreted that? These were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works. You can’t substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for a sense of comradeship.
- If you’re trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down at you anyhow. And if you’re trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere.
- About putting energy into people: “Those who sat with him saw his eyes go moist when they spoke about something horrible, or crinkle in delight when they told him a really bad joke. He was always ready to openly display the emotion so often missing from my baby boomer generation. We are great at small talk: “What do you do?” “Where do you live?” But really listening to someone — without trying to sell them something, pick them up, recruit them, or get some kind of status in return — how often do we get this anymore?”
- A few rules about love and marriage: “If you don’t respect the other person, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don’t know how to compromise, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. If you can’t talk openly about what goes on between you, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble. If you don’t have a common set of values in life, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble.”
- People are only mean when they’re threatened and that’s what our culture does. That’s what our economy does. Even people who have jobs in our economy are threatened because they worry about losing them. And when you get threatened, you start looking out only for yourself. You start making money a god. It is all a part of this culture.
- In business, people negotiate to win. They negotiate to get what they want. Love is different. Love is when you are as concerned about someone else’s situation as you are about your own.
The story of the little wave (something beautiful to finish this post)

Okay. The story is about a little wave, bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He’s enjoying the wind and the fresh air — until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore. “My God, this is terrible,” the wave says. “Look what’s going to happen to me!”
Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him, “Why do you look so sad?”
The first wave says, “You don’t understand! We’re all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn’t it terrible?”
The second wave says, “No, you don’t understand. You’re not a wave, you’re part of the ocean.”
