Precis 1/3 of Tuesdays with Morrie (re-edited)

Tuesdays With Morrie
By: Mitch Albom
Publisher: Random House
Year published: 1997


Precis: Until we are dying or completely dependent on another, we never really learn how to life (read: learn what's actually important in life, of things we will wind up regretting not doing more of.)

Quote one: "We need to learn how to die before we can learn to live."

Early on in the lessons with Mitch, Morrie describes people as living as if they were sleep-walking. They don't even know what they're doing.

Quote two: "Learn to love or die."

I think this is Morrie building off his idea that people live often like they're only sleep walking - not really living at all. We're so swept up in better careers and getting as much excess as possible that we do wind up getting completely absorbed in it. When we do that, we start to push away people we were close to and start losing them. As humans, we need and crave social interactions. I read in a book once about a man who was released from a jungle prison saying that Satre (in 'No Exit') got it all wrong - hell isn't other people. The harshest punishments in societies without actually executing someone include isolation or extreme isolation of some sort. Just as we can be living and preforming the tasks that Morrie sees as useless and insignificant, we can be living and emotionally dying. If we can't love or accept another person, we won't receive those feelings in return or even at all. We will be shunned and to an extent, it will crush us.

Quote three:  "I'm looking forward to being a baby once again."

 In this scene Morrie is talking to Mitch about how he fears  'the day someone has to wipe my ass... the ultimate sign of dependency'. Mitch asks him how that makes him feel and Morie tells him he's going to try and learn how to enjoy it. At first, it seemed like a really strange thing for me to imagine someone saying. I know when I'm really sick, I often don't like people helping me or coming near me because I don't like them to see me in such a weakened, needy state. I know if I was in Morrie's position, I would be absolutely mortified and wouldn't even be able to talk about it. The fact that he can doesn't come across as bravery to me but already as an acceptance of death being around the corner. Morrie knew what would be would be, he couldn't stop it and if he was going to have being fussing and caring for him, he might as well be optimistic about it. They wouldn't be helping him to die but helping him to live out his last days with some more comfort.