“Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness. I can tell you, as I’m sitting here dying, when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feeling you’re looking for, no matter how much of them you have” (125).
I believe that the concept that no amount of power or money will make someone happy is one of the best in the book. Because this is almost like a biographical look at someone who is not rich or famous, Morrie’s story hit me closer to home than reading a rags-to-riches tale of Marilyn Monroe. Morrie is someone that everyone can relate to. Most people spend their entire lives searching for happiness, in material possession or failed romance. People always want to be something they are not. Adults want to be young. Teenagers want to adults. Senior Citizens wish they could go back to the time they were just a year over the hill. Morrie teaches the reader that death is natural and life always comes full circle. Morrie asserts that you are dependent on your parents when you are a baby and through aging, once again become fully dependent on family in the last years of one’s life.
“He smiled. “You know what that reflects? Unsatisfied lives. Lives that haven’t found meaning. Because if you’ve found meaning in your life, you don’t want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to see more, do more…If you’re always battling against getting older, you’re always going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow” (118).
The reader can take so much out of Morrie’s words. The advice to live life to the fullest is something that most every adult says to a teenager. Morrie’s words affected me much more than if my mother were to say it to me. Knowing that Morrie, a dying man, is looking back on his entire life and drawing conclusions from experience, gives me a feeling of trust in him. I believe that, although adults and the elderly would also enjoy Tuesdays with Morrie, the target audience should be young adults and teenagers. I took many ideas about culture and life from Albom’s experience. Albom writes about his own growth from the beginning of his time with Morrie. By the time he is taught life lessons from Morrie, he is already a jaded and business- hardened man. If a younger audience can read Morrie’s theories on life, then perhaps they will be affected now, instead of having to soften themselves after the real world had forced them into a shell, like Albom experienced after college. This would also be a good story for some one who had recently lost a loved one to terminal illness because Morrie emphasizes that although he was in pain, he was dying peacefully. Knowing that a loved one died peacefully may put the minds of some at ease.
“It’s the same for women not being thin enough, or men not being rich enough. It’s just what our culture would have you believe. Don’t believe it” (155).
Morrie was completely against conformity to society. He did not see anything wrong with being number two, instead of number one. He had no shame, as he became ill, to have someone maintain his most private ordeals. Having someone else wipe him after using the “commode” was a sign of weakness he could not hide. As his disease withered him away, he had no choice but to go down proudly with his ALS. Although frustrated with his weakness and coughing spells, Morrie never let his depressed show to his visitors. He let his emotions run free, but always kept a positive attitude until his dying day. If a dying man can stay so happy and positive, I wonder why people in our world can’t be more like Morrie is. Our world would be a much better place.
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom is a true depiction of the place a person goes before they die. Morrie was able to communicate the process to us through Albom’s documentation because of a horrible disease with no cure and a slow dying process. Morrie let go of all his inhibitions when he was forced to depend fully on his loved ones. However, Morrie never gave up hope that his story would inspire others, as it did Albom. Morrie Schwartz was a teacher to the very end. In Tuesdays with Morrie, he shares his lesson plan with us all to teach us the greatest life lessons of all.
