Tuesdays with Morrie and My favourite Lines - 2

Tuesdays with Morrie is an experience that I will carry with me till my last. The experience moved me to an extent that I have blinked away tears as I read the book in a train, in a park, in front of an elderly couple in a waiting area and even at home. Every page, every line  is just so very true and something you can only vigorously nod at as it leaves you transported into an ideal world.

I am nobody to write a review. Infact, if I were to review this book, I’d probably copy paste the entire book because every chapter, every tuesday is a beautiful experience.

Mitch, one of Morrie’s better students, is “successful” in his career or so he thinks until he meets Morrie, his University Professor after a hiatus. What ensues is something that you must read for yourself.

I am not a fan of books that fall under the “self help” category but this one is a beautiful conversation with life’s lessons said in the most simple of ways. It is a true account and I can’t stop thinking of it. There are instances when I now wonder what Morrie would have told me if he were around now. Morrie is the kind of teacher I aspire to be someday.

Please go pick a copy and give it a try. I am not finding the lovely cover I have, on the internet. I’ll probably take a snap and update this post later. I just had to share this now.

 The book was gifted to me by one of the helpers in the clinic. She comes everyday to clean my cabin and she gave this book and said “Have you read this one?”, and when I looked blankly at her, she thrust the book into my hand and said “Higtime you read this.” Today, I thanked her profusely for the lovely journey she enabled me to make.

I loved so many lines that I thought of putting some down here and share them with you all under My Favourite Lines series. This is a long one but I want to save it here for all of you and for me. If you wish to read them in the context of the conversations in the book which gives an altogether different high, please skip the below.

“We all know how to be a child. It’s inside all of us. For me, it’s just remembering how to enjoy it.”

“Aging is not just decay…It’s growth.”

“You have to find what’s good and true and beautiful in your life as it is now. Looking back makes you competitive. And, age is not a competitive issue.”

“How can I be envious of where you are–when I’ve been there myself.” (the context in which this is said is just….. beautiful!)

“In the beginning of life, when we were infants, we need others to survive, right? And at the end of life, when you get like me, you need others to survive, right? But here’s the secret: in between, we need others as well.” (Lovely, isn’t it?)

“What’s wrong with being number two?”

“The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it.”

“Have you ever lost someone you love and wanted one more conversation, one more chance to make up for the time when you thought they would be here forever? If so, then you know you can go your whole life collecting days, and none will outweigh the one you wish you had back.”

“Sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you’re not really losing it. You’re just passing it on to someone else.”

“I like myself better when I’m with you.” 

“If you hold back on the emotions–if you don’t allow yourself to go all the way through them–you can never get to being detached, you’re too busy being afraid. You’re afraid of the pain, you’re afraid of the grief. You’re afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails. But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your heard even, you experience them fully and completely.”

“There is everything you know and there is everything that happens. When the two do not line up, you make a choice. ”

“Nothing haunts us like the things we don’t say.”

“I thought about all the people I knew who spent many of their waking hours feeling sorry for themselves. How useful it would be to put a daily limit on self-pity. Just a few tearful minutes, then on with the day.”

There are more, many more. Especially, the ones where every chapter concludes – the finishing line of a chapter.

Have you read this book? How did you feel about it?

I loved it and strongly recommend it.

After all, who doesn’t want a teacher?

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