Life's Greatest Lesson- PLN3

In  Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, Morrie, Mitch’s retired professor who is dying, is teaching me how to appreciate life more, to accept that death is going to happen, and lifes greatest lesson.

 Even though he is dying he appreciates everything that he has left: “He nodded toward the window with the sunshine streaming in. “You see that? You can go out there, outside, anytime. You can run up and down the block and go crazy. I can’t do that. I can’t go out. I can’t run. I can’t be out there without fear of getting sick. But you know what? I appreciate that window more than you do.”” I never thought about a window in any special way. I never realized that a window is as close as some people will ever get to outside. That a window is the last piece of outside that some people will ever see. We all take so much for granted, and it’s a shame because if we realized how lucky and special we are, we might try to help others get better, or appreciate what they have.

Death: “Everyone knows they’re going to die, but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do way you can actually be more involved in your life while you’re living.” I guess that we all know it’s going to happen, but believing it is too hard to believe. If today I took my last breath, felt my last touch, or said my last words, I would be ashamed. Ashamed that I spent so much of my life trying to fit in, ashamed that I haven’t even figured out who I am yet, and ashamed that every breath I took, I took for granted.

“Learn how to die, and you learn how to live.” If only life and death were that easy. You can’t take a class and learn how to die and live, there is no passing or failing. Learning to die and live comes from inside of you. I still haven’t figured it out yet, I really don’t believe that anyone has. Life’s greatest lesson is learning how to die, then how to live.

PLN 2: Good People, Good Thoughts, Bad Actions

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom is the most touching story that I have read my whole life because of the life changes in the characters, the mistakes, and the emotion. Mitch, Morrie’s favorite student, has changed a lot since Morrie saw him last, and while Mitch is noticing these changes he becomes very disappointed in himself. When Mitch was in college, he promised himself that he would never let his life and career be all about money. That he would do what he loves no matter if it paid minimum wage. Life sometimes gets the worst of us though. Mitch’s life became everything that he didn’t want to be, but he was too focused on it to even notice it was happening. Being such a good student, person, and having such an amazing understanding of life, love, and compassion didn’t matter in the end, Mitch made a stupid mistake that some people might classify as “bad.”

 “Good” people always have to make mistakes to prove that they are human. We all have made promises that we never fulfilled. On his graduation day, Mitch promised Morrie that he would stay in touch, even though he never did. If Mitch hadn’t seen Morrie on TV, Morrie would have died without Mitch ever thinking of him again.

 Through all of these good and bad changes in the characters you are never confused of what is going on, and the emotion is stronger than any book I have read before. My grandfather passed away this weekend and this book reminds me of him a lot. My grandpa and Morrie have a lot of things in common; their love of life, their will to fight until the end, and their way of opening up their heart to complete strangers. You only had to know them for an hour or so and you would be in love with them.

Even though Mitch is a really good person that knows when he is being “bad” or making mistakes, he needs to learn how to change his life path and make better choices. He needs to get a new job doing what he loves. I predict that Morrie will help him a lot at seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and how to get to it.

PLN #1

I really have been enjoying Mitch Albom’s story of Tuesdays With Morrie. I was a little bored at the beginning but things have really picked up fast. I like how it is a true story so the emotion behind the writing and the emotion that I am feeling when I read it is all real. None of the feelings are fake and that comes across very well.


"Suddenly, I was upon the house. I pushed the breaks spilling coffee in my lap. As the car stopped, I caught a glimpse of a large Japanese maple tree and three figures sitting near it in the driveway, a young man and a middle aged woman flanking a small old man in a wheelchair.
Morrie.
At the sight of my old professor, I froze.”
It had been 16 years since Mitch had seen Morrie. Mitch had promised Morrie that he would stay in touch and he never did. I wonder why Mitch did that. I think he might have been scared that if he stayed too close to Morrie when he died it would be too hard on him.

Mitch pulls up to Morrie’s house while on a business call. “… I should have dropped the phone and jumped from the car, run and held him and kissed him hello. Instead, I killed the engine and sunk down off the seat, as if I were looking for something.” I also wonder why Mitch wanted to finish his business call when he saw Morrie, I would have hung up on the person, but Mitch wanted to drive around the block a few times to finish up. Was he scared, scared that Morrie wouldn’t remember him, scared that Morrie wouldn’t want to see him?

It’s a little confusing how it started at the end and then jumped back in time. I am most interested in finding out how Mitch deals with Morrie’s death.