During college, Albom was an “A” student. He enjoyed Morrie’s class and Morrie s himself so much that he “finish(ed) that first class with him and enroll(ed) for another,” because “Morrie’s softness draws (him).” (30) Nevertheless, he also noted that he enrolled again in Morrie’s class because, “(Morrie) is an easy marker. He does not care much for grades.” (30) After college, despite his promise to keep in touch with his favorite professor, Albom did not keep in touch. He found that the world “was not the interested,” (14) in his talent. He was failing for the first time in life as he tried to get a job and find a career; he was drifting ever more and more aimlessly. Then he experienced his beloved uncle’s death of pancreatic cancer, and suddenly he felt that he would be next, he would also die young, and “that time were suddenly precious … and I could not move quickly enough.” (15) He changed, trading his dreams of becoming a musician for the security of a job at a newspaper, and “buried (himself) in accomplishments, because with accomplishments, (he) believed (he) could control things, (that he) could squeeze in every last piece of happiness before (he) got sick and died,” (17) as if happiness were something to be bought and sold or earned. Yet he soon found out that he could not earn happiness through accomplishments, and soon found himself miserable in his job, but good at burying himself in it to avoid thinking about his condition. He was not leading an examined life, but rather mindlessly trudging through the years of his life and also hoping that if he did more, bought more, earned more money, he would become happy, or happier than he was. Although his strategy was not working, he continued to do more and more without stepping back and realizing his problems.
When he began to visit Morrie, he began to learn things about the human condition, and began to see his unexamined life. Morrie taught him many valuable lessons. First, Morrie taught Albom about the tension of opposites, or “a series of pulls back and forth … like a pull on a rubber band, and most of us live somewhere in the middle.” (40) Under this theory, Morrie discusses concupiscence, the desire for the things we know are wrong, as well as people taking good things for granted, “even when you know you should never take anything for granted.” (40) Second, he talks at length about the human condition of death. He knows that it affects everyone, but he has taken on a rare view of death, viewing himself lucky to be able to tell others about how it feels as it slowly takes control of his body. He realized that “once you realize you are going to die, you see everything much differently,” (83) by which he means not only himself with a terminal illness, but also everyone, because “everybody knows they are going to die, but nobody believes it,” (80) meaning that nobody lives as if they are going to die, rather doing what the want even if they should not do it and putting off the big things they ought to do, and never telling people “I love you,” enough, or helping those in need. We help ourselves first, and “first” oftentimes extends far too long because we think we have all the time in the world to help others, and put it off till later, and then we die. Finally, Morrie teaches about humankind’s wounded nature and the desire for happiness, saying, “we’re deficient in some way. We are too involved in materialistic things, and they don’t satisfy us.” (84) He points out over and over that we all want top be happy but seek the wrong things to satisfy our desire.
Morrie goes on to offer a solution to this problem of seemingly un-satisfiable desires: “Love each other or perish.” (91) He expands, the most important thing in life is to give out love, and let it some in.” (52) Morrie sees the value in helping others, that by giving we get more than by simply getting, because of the deep joy in helping others and bringing others joy. He says that the only thing that will bring you satisfaction is “offering others what you have to give,” (126) He lists three points of devotion to bring happiness: devotion to loving others, to yourself and your community, and to creation something that gives you purpose and meaning. (127)
Morrie offers his solution, and I agree. I liked the book, because in addition to the points about love, he offers other ideas, about not buying society but creating your own, and about detaching yourself from evil of any sort, from loneliness, from hatred and anger, from anything that keeps you from love and goodness. Tuesdays with Morrie has brought me, like Mitch Albom and thousand of other readers, to reconsider how I live, and finding that I can improve, using the book’s solutions as well as I see fit to revise my outlook on life and how to live.