Tuesdays With Morrie By Mitch Albom [Buy this book] Review by Ellen Isaacs Rating: +3 -4 -3 -2 -1   0 +1 +2 +3 +4

Tuesdays With Morrie is a small book with a meaningful message. It tells the true story of Morrie Schwartz, a former sociology professor at Brandeis University who is dying of Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS). A student from 20 years ago, Mitch Albom, learns of Morrie's illness and starts to visit him once a week on Tuesdays, just as he had when he was in college. Through those weekly meetings, we learn about Morrie's views on life, death, happiness, money, marriage, family, and other such issues. Morrie doesn't believe that dying is something to be ashamed of, so he reaches out to people and shares his experience, treasuring the time he has left to connect with people and to say his goodbyes. As we experience Morrie's decline, we are reminded of what's most important in life and how hard we must try to focus on those things.

It took only a few hours to read this little book, and yet it sends a message that is worth keeping forever. I suspect each person will glean different lessons from this book, but here are some of the messages that struck me:

• Ignoring death doesn't make it go away, but instead cuts off an opportunity to treasure our own lives and the lives of others. Often when an older person talks about their death, their children say, "Don't talk that way," as if talking about it causes death. By denying death, we make it harder for people to accept their mortality, and we miss the opportunity to allay others' fears about what will happen to their loved ones after they're gone.
• When we're with someone, we should be fully there, focusing on them, listening to them, and responding to them.
• Morrie allowed himself time to feel self-pity, fear, anger. He fully experienced those emotions so that he could know the feeling, and then move on, without letting it consume him. By denying our feelings, we let them control us; if we accept them, we are free to choose our response to them.

I plan to read this every so often, just to keep reminding myself what really matters and to value each day.

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