Literary Journal #6 : Tuesdays with Morrie

I have always thought this book was so popular that it seemed like a naive topic. I remember when I was in grade school, the book was just translated into Korean language and was bestseller for months. Well, of course I did not read the book back then because I would have not even understood what the book was trying to tell me, but now taking this theology class called Death and Dying (and I am sure there will be hundred more people writing about this book), I was required to read the book. It is not always "fun" to read books that are designated by teachers or courses. And it is even less fun when I have to take a quiz or test based on the reading. But, surprisingly, I actually enjoyed the book. I am not sure if the book is a literary masterpiece that can be compared with Shakespeare or T. S. Eliot, but its content and meaning are no less greater than any other literary work I have encountered.

Morrie Schwartz, a former professor at Brandeis University, slowly dies from a disease called ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. While suffering from the terrible pain, he never loses smile on his face. The book is based on a series of dialogues between Morrie and his former student, and the narrator, Mitch Albom.

Death is brutal. It takes away all the good things we have experienced and learned in this world. Sometimes I become skeptic of my own life whenever people around me die. Sometimes it is just hard to understand what I live for and why I put so much of my energy trying to achieve things that I will lose someday. But after looking at Morrie, who doesn't regret or resent his fate, I had a chance to think about my birth, life and death once more in different perspective.

Morrie said "death ends life, not a relationship." I'm not sure if I was supposed to interpret the quote in a religious view point, but I was pretty sure he did not only mean relationship between human beings by saying it. Our relationship with the mother nature is also eternal. And death is only a small part of our worldly life. Death is as intense as our birth. The difference is, we were wet babies during the moment of birth just got out of the mother's womb trying to take the first breathe in, we die taking the last breathe out.

I don't know if there is afterlife or not following our deaths. But listening to Morrie saying "love always wins," I looked back and thought about what kind of life I want to live and I am living. Am I really loving myself? And I realized that I couldn't love anything or anyone else if I fail to love myself.