.
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
@3:40 PM
the book "tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom
(author of The Five People You Meet In Heaven)
- an old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson.
some parts of the story.
Morrie was a professor.
As he got older, he has a fatal illness and cant live much longer.
He thought "Do I wither up and disappear or do I make the best of my time left?"
Thus he make death his final project, the center point of his days.
Since everyone was going to die, he would be of great value, right?
He told his friends if they wanted to help, do not treat him with sympathy but with visits, phone calls, a sharing of their problems (like he used to, as a great listener).
He was intent on proving that the word "dying" was not synonymous with "useless".
His colleague died suddenly of heart attack, he attended his funeral and went home depressed.
He said "What a waste, all those people saying all those wonderful things, and he never get to hear any of it."
Morrie does not have much time left, fighting time to say all the things he wanted to say to all the people he loved.
He had a better idea. One day, he gathered his small group of friends and family in his home for a "living funeral". Each of them spoke and paid tribute to him.
All the heartfelt things we never get to say to those we love. His "living funeral" was a rousing success. Only Morrie wasn't dead yet.
As his disease got worser, he refused to be depressed.
He wrote bite-sized philosophies about living with death's shadow:
"Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do";
"Accept the past as past, without denying it or discarding it";
"Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others";
"Don't assume that it's too late to get involved";
He told his student, "The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves.
And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it."
"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're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."
The effect of silence on human relations. Why are we embarrassed by silence?
What comfort do we find in all the noise?
"Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, u have to believe what u feel.
And if u are ever going to have other people trust u,
u must feel that u can trust them, too - even when you're in the dark,
even when you're falling."
"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops"
- Henry Adams
TBC..
Labels: tuesdays with Morrie p1
