Tuesdays with Morrie Analysis

Analysis of the
Quotations
in
Tuesdays with Morrie

“Dying is only one thing to be sad over. Living unhappily is something else.”

Dying is one sad moment; living unhappily is thousands, millions of sad moments spread over the years of your life. Someday we are all going to die. Even though we all know it, most of us spend our lives pretending as if we will live forever. Like Morrie, we should all live urgently, intensely and purposefully because, when you think about it, we all have a "fatal disease" -- life itself. No one knows how long he or she will live. To get the most out of life we should all live as if we were dying, because the truth is, we are. Life is short. Let's make sure we live each day with urgency, purpose and meaning.

“Money is not the most important thing.”

According to I Timothy 6:10, “Greed of money is the root all evil.” Money cannot buy love or friends. Love and friends require time, and while, if you think on the bright side, perhaps money can buy friends and love, those will not be genuine and will instead befriend you or love you just because of your money. I think the most important thing in life is love because even though you have lots of money but you don’t have someone to share it with it would be meaningless. So many people now almost live for money. Life is quite ironic now, when people are young they spend their health chasing money and when they’re old they spend their money chasing their health. They have treated money as a god, money now resembles power, and due to money lots of people lost their loves, they substituted money for their family and friends. They do not value relationships. I can sum up all of these; money is a one way trip to hell.

“Maybe death is the great equalizer, the one big thing that can finally make strangers shed a tear for one another.”

We all have same beginning and same end. So how different can we be? Regardless of our income, nationality, sex, age or any other factor, every human being still has that one thing in common: we all die. No matter where you may have come from or what you may have done: you're going to die. And that makes everyone, in the end, equal.

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and let it come in.”

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13). Love, that one emotion that makes enemies into friends and friends into enemies... Love is the only thing that gives us pure happiness, the greatest gift we can ever give or receive. Loving someone gives us reason to live, and if you didn’t experience the joy of loving you may not fully understand the value of living. Let’s all remember that to love is nothing, to be loved is something and to love and be loved in return that is everything. Never take the one you love for granted.
“You see”, he says to the girl, “you close your eyes. That was the difference. Sometimes you cannot believe what you see; you have to believe what you feel. And if you’re going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you trust them too—even when you’re in the dark, even when you’re falling.”

Trust is blind. One must sometimes trust blindly, relying only on what they feel to guide them in their decision-making. Trustworthiness is a quality shared by two people in a partnership, and that each person takes a risk in trusting the other. This risk, however, is a risk that people must take. Maybe that’s why God did not gave us the power of mind-reading for us to give our trust completely to other person but sometimes trust is so hard to give because once it’s broken it’s so hard to mend.

“The culture doesn’t encourage you to think about such things until you’re about to die. We’re so wrapped with egotistical things, career, family, having enough money, meeting the mortgage, getting a new car and fixing the radiator when it breaks—we’re 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? You need someone to probe you in that direction. It won’t just happen automatically.”

Living here on earth is not merely about acquiring earthly materials but rather it is about the joy and caring we get from the people around us, our family and friends, they are the real jewels. People now are so busy spending their time to things that are valueless; they do not see how precious time is. We should spend our time wisely; spend it with our family, friends and our loved ones. If only people know how to be contented, how happy this earth could be?

“Everyone knows they’re going to die but nobody believes it.”

There are things in life that are unavoidable no matter how far any of us run from it. Death will always be looming in the future. One of the constant things in life is death, we will all come down to it, and no one is exempted. We should cherish our life; spend it with our loved ones, family and friends. So that when that day comes we would not regret for the things we haven’t said and done. We should live everyday as if it’s our last day on earth.

“The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn’t the family. It’s become quite clear to me as I’ve been sick. If you don’t have the support and love and caring and concern you get from your family, you don’t have much at all. Love each other and perish.”

Family is very important part of our everyday life. It helps us in improving our personality. It also helps us in shaping our life. It teaches us the value of love, affection, care, truthfulness and self-confidence and provides us tools and suggestions which are necessary to get success in life.
Family is a place where you can be yourself. It is a place where you are accepted for what you are. This is where you are completely tension free and everyone is there to help you. Family encourages you when you are surrounded by problems. It helps you survive through tough times and bring joy and happiness into life. They will never leave you no matter what happens.

“The truth is, when our mothers held us, rocked us, stroked our heads -none of us ever got enough of that. We all yearn in some way to return to those days when we were completely taken care of - unconditional love, unconditional attention. Most of us didn't get enough.”

Of all the love in the world, none could be the greatest than the love of a mother to her son. No one could ever replace that. Morrie said this because her mother died early. It’s so painful to grow up without a mother, grow up without caring and loving hands and sweet guidance. I would have never imagined life without mothers, mothers who can sacrifice their lives for their children.

“It’s very simple, as you grow, you learn more. If you stayed at twenty-two, you’d always be as ignorant as you were at twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It’s growth. It’s more than the negative that you’re going to die, it’s also the positive that you understand you’re going to die, and that you live a better life because of it.”

Aging and death is inevitable, they are the part of the life cycle. The youth nowadays faces a lot of problems and miseries; they are also not wise because they cannot find their purpose in life.
Morrie emphasizes here that once you found meaning in your life you would never have wished to go back and be young again. If your life has meaning you will want to progress forward with age by doing more things, seeing more and learning more.

“You have to find what’s good and true and beautiful in your life as it is now. Looking back makes you competitive. And age, is not a competitive issue.”

We live in a world where a lot of anti-aging products circulate in the market. A society seeking for being young forever, a society seeking for immortality. Why is everyone afraid of aging? Afraid of having wrinkles in their face. Age is just a number. Even though aging brought physical beauty to wear off in due time, the beauty in your heart will never fade and will always be remembered.

“There's a big confusion in this country over what we want versus what we need," Morrie said. "You need food, you want a chocolate sundae. You have to be honest with yourself. You don't need the latest sports car; you don't need the biggest house.”

Our wants versus our needs, what should really be important? We should spend money wisely, spend it on our needs not on our wants. Why the world did ever invent such things that would just satisfy our wants and desires? Things that are only for luxury and prestige, because of this, things that we really need are being taken for granted.

“The truth is, you don’t get satisfaction from those things. You know what really gives you satisfaction? Offering others what you have to give.”

“Those things” refers to money and materialistic possessions. Living a full life and being satisfied means offering people what we have to give, just by giving year time and concern to others. There are so many people who needs compassion and affection and if we all offer time to give it, we will find a new respect for ourselves. Devoting ourselves to loving others and devoting our time and effort to our community gives life meaning.

“Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.”

There’s no point in holding anger and vengeance for another person. We need to forgive ourselves for the things we should have done. We shouldn’t get stuck on regrets of what should have happened. We should make peace with ourselves and to those around us.

“Death ends life, not a relationship.”

It means that even if someone dies, you still go on loving them. Death doesn’t change how much they mean to you or how much you love them. Death takes away the person you love but not the feeling and memories you had with them. After a person dies, that person still lives on in the hearts of everyone he had touched and nurtured while he’s on earth. No one can ever erase that memory.