What Everyone of Us Can Learn from Morrie Schwartz
When you hear Morrie Schwartz, one of the things that will come to your mind is the book Tuesdays with Morrie. It’s a book written by Mitch Albom documenting the lessons that Mitch learnt from Morrie during his last days.
Morrie had been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in the summer of 1994, a degenerative disease which would eventually take his life.
During the last days of Morrie’s life, Abom visits him over the course of 14 weeks every Tuesday, hence the title of the book Tuesdays with Morrie. In the book we learn that despite his terminal diagnosis, Morrie Schwartz is determined to live to the full. Instead of withdrawing in isolation, he wants to share his experience with the world and share knowledge.
In the book, Mitch is not that satisfied with the way he has existed his life, but Morrie provides him a piece of insight. According to Morrie, everyone needs to forgive themselves for everything we did not do. Morrie transforms the life of Mitch in many different ways and there are many lessons for us too.
Lesson 1- Live life to the full
Morrie decided to live his life to the fullest. The terminal diagnosis was not to rob him of his life as long as he was still alive.
He enjoyed every bit of his life, he did not worry about the future and as a result he left a great legacy for us all. As Louise Hay always advised we must live in the now.
Lesson 2- Live in the now
Morrie did not let his mind wander and worry about the future. He remained in the now and was thus able to be in the right mental frame to share his experience. If he had been weakened by worry he would not have been able to share his experience. The book, Tuesdays with Morrie would not have been written and considering its popularity, what a loss that would have been to the world.
Lesson 3- You have the power to choose
Morrie utilised his power of choice. He found happiness and peace even in difficult circumstances. This reminds me of how Viktor Frankl, a holocaust survivor, managed to find strength in the concentraction camps. Just like Morrie, Viktor Frankl used his power of choice. Given the despicable and inhumane conditions in the concentration camps, Frankl was well justified to worry. But instead, he chose peace. He chose to feel grounded and safe in the worst of situations. Here is Viktor Frankl’s quote, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Looking at Morrie Schwartz’s story, this is exactly how he approached his life.
Morrie Schwartz bio
There is little information about the life of Schwartz. He is a man who became prominent from the grave. Here are a few details about him. Schwartz was born on December 20, 1916, in NYC. Charlie his father, was a Russian-Jewish refugee who had traveled from Russia to evade the military. Morrie had lost his mother at the tender age of 8.
Although Morrie was born Jewish, he had explored various religions and embraced the different viewpoints from Buddhism and Christianity.
In June 1955, he worked at the Brandeis University in Waltham in Massachusetts as a professor of Sociology. This is where Mitch Albom, a writer and author was one of his students, and the two had established a rapport throughout the years.
Morrie Schwartz Quotes
1. “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.
2. Forgive yourself before you die. Then forgive others.
3. Death ends a life, not a relationship.
4. Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.
5. Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel that you can trust them too-even when you are in the dark. Even when you’re falling.
6. As you grow old, you learn more. If you stayed at twenty-two, you’d always be as ignorant as you were at twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It’s growth. It’s more than the negative that you’re going to die, its also the positive that you understand you’re going to die, and that you live a better life because of it.”―
7.Maybe death is the great equalizer, the one big thing that can finally make strangers shed a tear for one another”
As you can see Morrie was a man who stared death in the face but found life. What could be more inspiring? If we could apply the same principle to our daily lives, we would worry less and thrive more. Thanks for stopping by. Please share the post, a gift of inspiration could lift someone’s day.
If you want add Tuesdays with Morrie to your self growth library, please follow links below.
Morrie Schwartz Books
