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Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch  Albom "When you learn how to die, you learn how to live." "Death ends a life, not a relationship." "The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in." "When you're in bed, you're dead" "Love wins. Love always wins." "Love each other or perish." "Love is how you stay alive, even after you are gone." "Without love, we are birds with broken wings."

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Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie - a review by London psychotherapist and educator Tim LeBon

Very appropriately, I "discovered"  Tuesdays with Morrie through my students.  "It's very inspiring" said one. She was right. "But very sad" said another. I actually don't agree with that. The protagonist, Morrie, dies at the grand old age of 78, confident in the knowledge that his wisdom will not die with him. "A teacher to the last" as his epitaph had it.

For me, the  most  vivid image from the book that remains with me is that of the bird on your shoulder who alone knows whether this day will be your last. But a quick scan of the quotes from Tuesdays with Morrie   suggest that the main theme is not death but the importance of love.  Certainly Morrie is a living illustration of how love can benefit all.  By which he means not just romantic love,  but love for all humanity. Morrie, in his dying months, is surrounded by those who have been touched by his kindness and caring.  I am sure that if Morrie would want the reader to take away one insight from the book, it is about how we should give and receive love more freely - and how competing values like money, fame and power are relatively impoverished.

If love makes the book both Buddhist and Christian, the focus on death and how to deal with it gives it an existential edge. "Death ends a life, not a relationship" is a reminder that meaning does not end with physical death - we live on in the hearts and minds of others. "Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live" may sound obtuse at first hearing, but to my mind is  a plea not to take anything for granted. We should  live in awe of the gift of life and live every moment to the full.

Tuesdays with Morrie certainly succeeded in inspiring this particular reader - but does its philosophy of universal love and appreciation of life hold up  to critical scrutiny? The cynic could point to the fifteen years after graduation when Morrie's star student and near-surrogate son, the author himself -  Mitch Albom -  lived a life totally out of kilter with Morrie's values.  In fact that this  reinforces one of Morrie's main points. The prevailing culture in the States (and, I'd add, Britain) runs against enlightened values. It's hard to go against the materialist current. Tuesdays with Morrie may not turn the tide completely, but it provides inspiration and ammunition for those who feel its time to do so.

Recommended Links

Official Tuesdays with Morrie site
    "Maybe it was a grandparent, or a teacher, or a colleague. Someone older, patient and wise, who understood you when you were young and searching, helped you see the world as a more profound place, gave you sound advice to help you make your way through it. For Mitch Albom, that person was Morrie Schwartz, his college professor from nearly twenty years ago." Read more ..



Excerpt from Tuesdays with Morrie
    "The last class of my old professor's life took place once a week in his house, by a window in the study where he could watch a small hibiscus plant shed its pink leaves. The class met on Tuesdays. It began after breakfast. The subject was The Meaning of Life. It was taught from experience." Read more ...

Spark Notes on Tuesdays with Morrie

Contains summaries and explanations of quotations, including "The truth is . . . once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.""
"Morrie says this on the fourth Tuesday in response to   Mitch's question about how one can prepare for death. He responds with a Buddhist philosophy that every day, one must ask the bird on his shoulder if that day is the day he will die.... When he tells Mitch that one must know how to die before one can know how to live, he means that one must accept the possibility of one's own death before he can truly appreciate what he has on earth" Read more ...

Who was Morrie Schwartz? (from Wiki)

Morris S. Schwartz (December 20, 1916-November 4, 1995) was an American educator. He gained posthumous fame as the subject of the book Tuesdays With Morrie, published in 1997.
After seeing Schwartz on Nightline discussing his illness, Albom found his old mentor 16 years after their last meeting, and they collaborated on Tuesdays with Morrie during Schwartz's final days in 1995.  Read  more ..


Biography of Mitch Albom  (from Wiki)

Mitchell David Albom (born May 23, 1958 in Trenton, New Jersey) is an award-winning American sportswriter, novelist, newspaper columnist for the Detroit Free Press, syndicated radio host, and TV commentator. He is a graduate of Akiba Hebrew Academy, Brandeis University, and Columbia University. Before becoming a journalist, Albom was briefly an amateur boxer, nightclub singer, and pianist. Read more ...