Tuesdays with Morrie

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom is about a sportswriter that visits his old college professor who is dying. Mitch Albom tells this story in a first-person point of view. Mitch learns many lessons about life during his visits with his old college professor. As the reader, you also learn many lessons about life. One lesson about life that the reader learns is to reject popular culture, and make your own culture. Another lesson about life that is learned is to forgive. Morrie tells Mitch to not only forgive others, but forgive himself. One life lesson learned is to reject popular culture, and make your own culture. Morrie preaches this idea throughout the text. For instance, Morrie says “It`s just what our culture would have you believe. Don’t believe it.” (pg. 155) Before he said this, Morrie was explaining that he wasn’t embarrassed about being severely ill. Then he said that our culture makes us believe that being ill is embarrassing. Morrie then told Mitch not to believe this. Morrie also says “The way to do it, I think, isn’t to run away. You have to work at creating your own culture.” (pg. 156) Here Morrie is saying that moving to a new country isn’t going to solve your problems. The way you can fix your life is to create your own culture, rather than follow the popular culture. By creating your own culture, Morrie doesn’t mean that you should go around breaking all the rules. He is saying that you should think differently and value things for yourself. As well as rejecting popular culture, Morrie also teaches that you need to forgive. Not only to forgive others, but forgive yourself. When talking about forgiving others, Morrie tells a story about an old friend of his named Norman. Norman and Morrie used to be best friends, but Morrie`s wife got sick and Norman never called to see if she was okay. This made Morrie upset and they were no longer friends. Morrie regrets never speaking to him again. This is shown in this quote “Mitch… a few years ago… he