Fantastic book in its content and its clarity, a book about life and death, as a dying old professor (Morrie) with incurable ALS disease tells what it feels like to know your life is coming to and end and what are the lessons of life. I have taken some quotes to given an opening to the book.
On page 73, Morrie talks about his mother’s death,
“One of his aunts, a heavyset woman, grabbed Morrie and began to wail: “what will you do with out your mother? What will become of you?”…at the cemetery, Morrie watched as they shoveled dirt into his mother’s grave. He tried to recall the tender moments they had shared when she was alive. She had operated a candy store until she got sick, after which she mostly slept or sat by the window, looking frail and weak. Sometimes she would yell out for her son to get her some medicine, and young Morrie, playing stickball in the street, would pretend he did not hear her. In his mind he believed he could make the illness go away by ignoring it. How else can a child confront death?
“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” Henry Adams. On page 81
Morrie answers to a question pertaining if one could be prepared to die, “How can you ever be prepared to die? Do what the Buddhists do. Every day, have a little bird on your should that asks, is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?” The author then describes the action of Morrie. “He turned his head to his shoulder as if the bird were there now.” “is today the day I die?” he said. The truth is, Mitch (author), Morrie says, “Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.” Although, the author nodes. Morrie says, “I am going to say it again, Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”
On Page, 84, Morries says,
“Even I don’t know what spiritual development means. But I do know we’re deficient in some way. We are too involved in materialistic and they don’t satisfy us…I appreciate that window more than you do…Yes I look out that window every day. I notice the changes in the trees, how strong the wind is blowing. It’s as if I can see time actually passing through that window-pane. Because I know my time is almost done, I am drawn to nature like I’m seeing it for the first time”
On page 91, Morrie says, “The fact is there is no foundation. No secure ground, upon which people may stand today if it isn’t the family. It’s become quite clear to me as I’ve been sick… and quotes poet Auden’s saying “Love is supremely important. ‘Love each other or perish.” – still on the subject of family Morrie says on page 93, where he is looking at a photo of his oldest son, “There is no experience like having children.’ That’s all. There is no substitute for it. You can not do it with a friend, you can not do it with a lover. If you want the experience of having complete responsibility for another human being, and to learn how to love and bond in the deepest way, ten you should have children.”
On page 104, “Detach from emotions and…” it’s not just for those who are about to die. Remember when you learn to die, you learn to live.” Through out Morrie encourages the act of showing one’s emotions including allowing one self’s to cry to tears. I found some comfort in that quote, because I truly believe that, tear is one of the ways the body express its emotional and physical grievance as too clean it pain.
No comments:
Post a Comment