Book Review: Tuesdays with Morrie

"Tuesdays with Morrie", by Mitch Albom. A true story about how Mitch found his dying colleage teacher Morrie who was diagnosed with an incurable disease. They spent the remaining months of Morrie's life together, meeting every Tuesday to discuss about life and what's important.

It is very enlightening and offers a good counter-perspective to what the society has moulded us into. In the face of death, does the new sports car, new house or promotion seem as important? What about your spouse, parents, siblings or friends? Ironcially, we spend the majority of our time, thoughts and energy on the less important stuffs.

It talks about the importance of death in our life. For in the face of death, even the grandest of all riches means nothing, as you cannot take them with you; and it is only with this perspective that we can focus on what are the things that are important.

"When you learn how to die, you learn how to live."

- Morrie

Indeed, no one escapes death; no matter how great or how rich, it doesn't matter.

People inherently wants recognition and acceptance; and the society has moulded us to believe that by being more successful, more beautiful, slimmer or richer, we can command the respect and acceptance that we seek. Look at the slimming ads advocating greater confidence with a slim figure, the fame of the rich and famous commanding great love and respect from fans. But no one advocates the importance of respecting your elders, understanding your friends, and loving your family. Sadly, the materialistic facade gets us nowhere as Morrie says:

"... if you're trying to show off to the people at the top, forget it. They will look down on you anyhow. And if you are trying to show off to the people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally among everyone."

Live each day like its your last. That will help us to put things into proper perspective. We all know that we will die someday, but we never truly believe it. Look at the response when a doctor announce to a patient that he is diagnosed with an incurable disease; most probably, a typical reaction will be, "Are you sure? It can't be me. I am NOT dying."

Seldom do we see a response like "Oh, it's my turn? It's about time."

Inherently, we want to believe and we bluff ourselves that there is always a tomorrow. So we keep procastinating the important stuffs to 'tomorrow'. Just think of how many times we have said we will do something important 'tomorrow' but never really get to doing it.

Fact is, we may never have a 'tomorrow'. My friend, Wei Loon did not have one. He collapsed during a run and never woke up from it. Another ex-school mate Chrissy, pregnant, looking forward to migrating to a better life in Australia with her husband; both died in a car accident. There's no 'tomorrow' for them. I guess there must be many things that they wanted to do 'tomorrow'. So many regrets and sorrys that's left to be said. So many 'I love you' that's not expressed.

When will my last tomorrow be?