A Review of Tuesdays with Morrie, a Book by Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom thought that he was just going to visit an old sick friend; he didn’t realize that over the next fourteen weeks he would learn the lesson of a life time. Mitch accidentally heard about his old professor’s bad luck in getting ALS, a deadly disease with no cure. He went for one visit, which turned into their last class together. The two men decided to create a course with one teacher and one student, with one lesson in goal: how to give out love, and how to let it in.

Mitch only intended on one visit to reconcile with his old friend, but Morrie’s charm pulled him in to coming every Tuesday “We’re Tuesday people” (p.52). This started a course with no grades, no tests, only talking. Talking about life and what we go through every day barely noticing it or brushing it off. Morrie had always been high-spirited and optimistic, but after he found out he was dying ,he changed the way he looked at life.

Morrie helped many friends with their problems and gave them advice. He also shared his observations of the world with friends and family, but mainly Mitch.

Morrie gave Mitch many different lessons for life, such as: it’s okay to show your emotions, live like your dying, stop and smell the roses, our culture is teaching us to be wrapped up in egotistical things, and once you learn how to die, you learn how to live. These are quite hard for Mitch because he doesn’t know how to express himself or show emotions.

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He also revolves around work and money. I think the most important lesson Morrie tried to teach Mitch is “…Learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”(p.52). All of those little lessons come together to create this lesson of life. People cannot learn to love each other until they love their self, which is a major part of the lesson. This lesson isn’t just something you need to learn once it is a life style that you need to take to heart. If your life revolves around your work, how much money you make, the positions you have, or your social status, then it would be hard, but not impossible, to change your ways into being a loving and a wise person like Morrie. Since this task is hard to understand, we all cannot change our ways by ourselves “You need someone to probe you in that direction. It won’t happen just automatically.”(p.65) Morrie was explaining this to Mitch. We all need a coach, teacher, or parent to explain how to do something and lead us into choosing the right decisions, which helps us strive for Morrie’s life lesson. When you succeed at the life style, you learn how to appreciate life and how to feel affection for life and other people “I appreciate that window more than you do.” (p.84) Morrie is explaining to Mitch how he experiences the world differently from everyone else. This also brings up the mini lessons of live like you’re dying and stop and smell the roses because Morrie tells Mitch “Because I know my time is almost done, I am drawn to nature like I’m seeing it for the first time.” (p.84)

In the beginning of the book Mitch is a determined sports writer, also a workaholic. Throughout the course of those fourteen weeks, Mitch gradually changed his attitudes toward people and the world. Mitch kept to himself and did not like touchy-feely subjects such as spirituality “You hate that word don’t you? ‘Spiritual.’ You think its touchy-feely stuff.” (p.84). In my opinion, every time something bad happened in his life, he would lose apart of himself or store his feelings inside. When he got out of college, Mitch lived with his uncle, who died. He lost some of himself. Mitch wanted to be a pianist, but didn’t get far. He lost some of himself. When he can never get a hold of his distance brother, he loses more of himself. But, I think, when Mitch started his “schooling” with Morrie, Morrie brought some of those emotions back and taught Mitch how to express them without feeling like a child. Mitch even notices his own changes “Things that before would have made me embarrassed or squeamish were now routinely handled.”(p.154).

I think this is a huge step for Mitch because he is learning life’s greatest lesson. Mitch Albom wrote this book not for himself, but for his good friend Morrie. Morrie changed Mitch’s life so much; he probably looks back and says “Really? I did this?” In the beginning of this book I would grade Mitch’s life as a C because it was just average, maybe a little below. He had a job and a wife, but that’s pretty much it. He didn’t really have a purpose in life. Then, after Mitch had his “classes” with Morrie, I would give him a B+ because he has almost fully accomplished life’s greatest lesson: how to give out love, and how to let it in.