Tuesdays With Morrie Research Paper

Sarah Jackson
SOCI 480
2/4/2013
Tuesdays with Morrie
One day, we all must face the reality of death through either our own personal time clock running out or watching someone we love die. For Mitch Albom this reality came through a college professor whom he was very close to in college. Mitch Albom, after graduation and through years of hard work, found himself questioning the meaning of what he had been doing for years. These questions were evoked by his professor, who came back into his life after years of being away. Mitch began visiting Morrie, a dying professor who was suffering from ALS, the degenerating process of your body giving out completely. Mitch visited his professor on
Tuesdays, they would sit, eat together, and talk about different aspects of life
such as regret, the world, family, emotions, fears, money, love, marriage, forgiveness, and death.
Mitch said he found himself again through those visits with Morrie on Tuesdays.
Here are some of the conversations that stood out to me personal. “Dying,” Morrie suddenly said, “is only one thing to be sad over, Mitch. Living unhappily is something else. So many of the people who come to visit me are unhappy.” Why? “Well, for one thing, 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. They’re more unhappy than me—even in my current condition. “I may be dying, but I am surrounded by loving, caring souls. How many people can say that?”
Morrie knew that even in his suffering, there was purpose and meaning. “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.” What a powerful statement. I

think we get so busy in life that we forget those most important factors such as loving one another with genuine love.
What I received from this reading is that life is too short to get so busy and forget
the small things that matter the biggest in our lives. Love is what matters, giving and receiving it should be our life’s greatest work here on earth. Morrie said, “There is no such thing as 'too late’ in life.” That statement stuck with me because so many times we think that its too late for something to be different or too late to make a change. I must remember it is never to late to change the course of my life so that when y dying day comes, I can confidently embrace it because my life was filled with meaning and purpose and love.