There’s a book called “Tuesdays with Morrie”. For the most
part, this book is a conversation taking place between a professor and his
student. The Professor is on his death bed and suffering from severe symptoms
which is making his life miserable, every passing day. His health is
deteriorating every second and yet he chooses not to lament about the
excruciating pain he is going through. Rather he decided to share his
perspective about life in a very unique way. He wants to be around people and
jest about his own disease conditions. While doing so, he gives his closest
student named Mitch; the finest advice of his life. The quintessences of his
life experience are gathered in the book.
This book really hits hard on my gut. To me, his advice
were the finest example of precious pearls.
I’m going to put those pearls in bullet points, during the reading some emotional moments were too intense that really have forced my eyes to burst into tears.
Morrie Says:
1. You are not here to make your society happy about what
you feel is right. You should be adamant to stand for your right even if the
culture doesn’t support you. Don’t buy it, if culture is wrong. Create your own
small world, your own circle of like-minded people. You don’t have to blindly
follow the culture. You aren’t supposed to make society happy about what you
are doing.
2. People, in general, are usually not in their whole consciousness. They are on autopilot mode most of the time. That is because they are running for the wrong things. We do things not feeling good about them yet still do them in half-sleep mode. Only by bringing meaning and purpose into our lives, we can counter this behavior. we can create meaning in life by serving the community and devoting ourselves to people, helping others for no reason. That’s how meaning comes into our life. Only then, we learn to live consciously, not half-sleep.
3. We should ask ourselves every new day: Is today my day to
leave this world? Am I doing, what I want and need to do? That's how we learn to scrutinize and improve ourselves.
4. We learn how to live only when we learn how to die.
If we are prepared for our death we are truly living to the fullest.
5. We need to learn to examine our feelings and it’s
very important for us to learn to detach ourselves from our attachments. Since
things are impermanent in nature in this world. Accept the emotion, that
you are going through at the moment, instead of running from them. Don’t be scared of your
own emotions. Rather, look eye to eye to the emotion, acknowledge them and
then let go of it with all consciousness. We are always scared of our emotions, we feel so vulnerable in front of our emotions that we don’t even try to feel that emotion fully. We need to learn to dive in
and then out of the emotion that's how we can detach ourselves from everything. And it’s really important to detach from everything in life. Learn to unhook yourselves.
6. We try to escape the fact that we are aging. We have to
see aging as growth. Disgust for aging reveals unsatisfied lives. Meaning and
purpose are what make you accept aging. The hopeful aspect of aging is that you
try to improve because you are running outta time. If you find meaning in your
life, you want to go forward not backward. You have to accept the ground
reality that every one of us has to age. By stressing out unnecessarily, you can’t change the reality, it has to happen someday. So, better to accept it and take it as a chance for improvement.
7. There’s a lot of indoctrination taking place on national
levels. To indoctrinate the masses, they repeat the same thing over and over and over
again. They tell you: possessing more is good, more consumerism is good, more
materialism is good, they repeat it so much so, that
no one dares to think to believe otherwise. It’s a design they use to desensitize
the masses. That’s how peoples’ minds are fogged up and stop working because of
the repetition.
8. If you devote yourself to others you will find respect
for yourself. There are elderly people in the hospitals and senior centers, who
only want some company. Go and just spend some time with them, play cards with an old man; you
will find a new meaning to your life because you will feel your worth you will feel needed. You can go and
teach a new skill for free. that's the most translucent form of community service. This act
will work to reduce your dissatisfaction in life. Giving is life.
9. People are running after things, the next car, the next
house, the next job. Once they start running for things, there is no stopping.
But they don’t know that happiness comes from the things that you do from the
heart. Giving others makes you alive. And it brings in infinite satisfaction.
When it happens you are so filled up with contentment that you find no space to
envy others or long for somebody else’s thing.
There are few rules about marriage
and love; Morrie says:
10. If
you don’t respect your partner, you are going to suffer in the marriage.
11. If
you don’t know how to compromise, you are going to have to suffer.
12. If
you suffer communication blockages, you are going to have to suffer.
13. If
you don’t have common values in life, you are going to have to suffer.
14. Your
level of belief in the importance of marriage is really important to keep a
marriage afloat. Marriage is a very important thing in life; you are missing
out on a lot if you miss marriage.
16. Love
each other or perish, there’s no other stronger foundation than marriage.
Neither money nor fame can give you that security which you get from being a
part of a family. Having children has no substitute; Children teach us love
and bonding. We need to give love and let the love come in. love is the only
rational act.
Buy this book: Here
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom4