tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom

It is a handy book with life's simple effective thoughts and gives enough learning for a lifetime.I don't say it as death literature, but as one of the priority/time management book for extracting the maximum out of one's life. 

One of the observations I made is that the western world does not have enough spiritual element in their societies[ I may be wrong ] and they should eventually crave for the spirituality , where as we the eastern part of the world filled with spirituality, ignore our values/culture and is going after the western culture.How riduculous !

This book is about the experiences of an old man who is going to die due to a deadly neurological disease called "ALS" which eats away the strength of human body part by part making them inactive. This book brought me to verge of crying when going through it. The aphorisms quoted in this book has profound thoughts embedded in simple words.

Few of them are -

• Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do
• Accept the past as past, without denying it or discarding it
• Don’t assume that it is too late to get involved
• Learn to forgive yourselves and to forgive others
• Love each other or perish

Some of the though provoking ideas/sentences –

#  Tension of opposites –

“Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn’t. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. “A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle. “

#  Morrie’s  understanding on aging –

As you grow, 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, it’s also the positive that you understand you’re going to die, and that you live a better life because of it

#  Morrie’s take on Money

There’s a big confusion over what we want versus what we need. You need food, you want a chocolate sundae. You have to be honest with yourself. You don’t need the latest sports car, you don’t need the biggest house.You don’t need the money but the attention/love you get, possessing the substitutes like money. The truth is, you don’t get satisfaction from those things. What really gives you satisfaction is the offering others what you have to give like offering your time.

If you’re trying to show off for people at the top, forget it. They will look down at you anyhow. And if you’re trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere. Only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.

# Making a meaningful life

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

Do the kinds of things that come from the heart. When you do, you won’t be dissatisfied, you won’t be envious, you won’t be longing for somebody else’s things. On the contrary, you’ll be overwhelmed with what comes back.

The simple points I will take away and use from this book are

• Be a good listener. Dedicate your 100% of the time you spent to listen someone to actually listen.No multitasking. Just concentrate on that moment and get completely attached to the speaker/topic.
• Think about your perfect day. Try make every day a perfect day

Signs off,

Vish