Sometimes in life you come across a book which has answers to all your unasked questions. Interestingly, that book is the one which you bought in a hurry from the bookstore because your parents were being impatient as you are taking so long to purchase “that one perfect book”.
But, once you start reading that book which you bought under pressure, you realise that it is not the book which you should keep aside and allow the dust particles to make their new home on the cover-page. Instead, you realise that it is the kind of book which would help you in understanding what an enigma life is.
So, I am going to talk about the book which I bought randomly and later realised that it is the exact book for which I was yearning for years. Therefore, the book which became my personal guide is– “Tuesdays With Morrie” by Mitch Albom.
This book was written back in the year 1997 as a memoir by the Author to his former sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz, who died of Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). In this book, Albom and his professor, Morrie, meet on every Tuesday, to have “adult conversations”, and Morrie gives lessons to his student on “how to live”.
Honestly, just when I started reading this book, in my mind I was thinking, “Drop it! It might be boring. You won’t like it.” But somewhere I was also thinking, “The title has a name in it. It might turn out to be good. Let’s give it a try.” And like this, I started reading “Tuesdays With Morrie”.
While reading this book, I came across a lot of lessons, which were universal in nature, but still, were of great importance. Therefore, below given are some of the lessons which Morrie taught me while he was giving personal life lessons to his student, Mitch Albom.
- “Life is a series of pulls back & forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn’t. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle.” After reading this monologue by Professor Morrie, I honestly took a few seconds break to realise that we, humans, have made our lives complicated, and because of our self-created problems, we suffer.
- “So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’ve been chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning in your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” Professor Morrie, with this statement, threw light on how in order to achieve happiness and satisfaction, we must devote ourselves to the greater cause; which could be to preserve humanity.
- “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and how to let it come in. We think we don’t deserve love. We think, if we let it in, we’ll become too weak. But, a wise man named Lenin said it right. He said, “Love is the only rational act.” After stating about one of the purest, yet the most adulterated emotion, Professor Morrie aptly cleared it out that love is the very base of humanity, and without love, this universe cannot survive.
- “Do the kind of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won’t be dissatisfied, you won’t be envious, you won't be longing for somebody else’s things. On the contrary, you’ll be overwhelmed with what comes back.” Professor Morrie clearly stated that we must do what we love. But, if we don’t have the privilege to do what we love, we must learn to love what we do.
- “Why are we embarrassed by silence? What comfort do we find in all the noise?” Professor Morrie was absolutely right. We avoid silence all the time without realising that silence, solitude, and loneliness are a gift to humankind.
Lastly, I would say that buying and reading “Tuesdays With Morrie” was one of the most beautiful mistakes I’ve ever committed. This book has not only made me learn about the important life lessons, but it has also made me realise that we, humans, are involved so much in competing and surviving, that we forget to live before we die.
