Tuesdays with Morrie

Its a book which captures Mitch Albom's discussions with his teacher Morrie on various topics concerning life, that happens on Tuesday. Morrie was his college professor and he is about to die. Mitch has lost touch with him after college and comes to meet him after hearing about his illness. 

Morrie has been a guide and more so over a friend to Mitch when he was in college. He used to call him Coach. This book apart from being an inspirational book about life also depicts a lovely teacher - student relation , which I wish I could have. The way he calls him Coach and the way he reads his mind is really worth experiencing.

The book captures Mitch's meetings with Morrie at his house on every Tuesday, I guess around 7-8 Tuesdays. Mitch records each of their meeting in a tape recorder as directed by Morrie as Morrie wants everyone to listen to them even when he is no longer in this world. Every tuesday they meet to discuss one topic on life which includes family, marriage, children, career etc.

This book makes a very interesting and motivational read and like all inspirational books it doesn't tell anything that we already don't know but the way the story is stitched you can always relate to it.

So there are certain statements that are mentioned in the book that I would like to mention here and also comment about. They are as follows:

"Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do. Accept the part 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. "

Very true and as also mentioned by Dale Carnegie in one of his books , accepting things as they are is very important aspect of life. You just can't be rebellious about everything all the time. You can't always say No it can't happen to me. I don't deserve it. I guess the best way to overcome something or to do something about anything is to first accept how it is first then only we can be in a better position to overcome it.

  

"A teacher affects eternity;he can never tell where his influence stops" Henry Adams. 

He quotes this quote from Henry Adams and  of course he is damn right. No matter how old we get teachers are one people whom we respect and remember throughout our life. Even when we get highly successful we never fail to mention or remember their teachings which has helped us become what we are.

There is no experience like having children. There is no substitute for it. You cannot do it with a friend. You cannot 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, then you should have children. 

After reading this statement I again longed to have a child, The way a child loves and trust his parent is something that is must for everyone to experience. Many times I try to find out what we mean by being mature or maturity , although I don't have an answer but I guess one point when I can say that this person is mature or has matured when he is with his children , he somehow has an aura of responsibility, maturity and respect around him.

Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. 

Hmmm the last line is quite thought provoking.

Each night when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn. - Mahatma Gandhi

I think that it  would be really beneficial if we could practice what Bapu has said. If we could get over all the thoughts , miseries etc when we go to sleep as if we are never going to get up again then when we will get up next day we will definitely feel quite fresh and rejuvenated.

Don't let go too soon, but don't hang on too long.

The question it makes me ask is how long is too long and how soon is too soon? As they say that may be you have been successful if you had just hold on for one more moment or you gave up just before you were about to succeed. I feel the answer to how long or how soon is generally based on intuition.