Tuesdays With Morrie - My Favorite Tuesday

      Last week, we started reading the book Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom. It is about the author, Mitch, and his relationship with his old college professor, Morrie. Morrie was diagnosed with ALS, or Amyotrophic Laterals Sclerosis. Mitch reconnects with him and every Tuesday, he comes over and talks with Morrie. They talk about the world, regrets in life, feeling sorry for yourself, family, death, and many more topics like that. My favorite conversation that they had was about the world. 

      The first Tuesday, they talk about the world. They also talk about the news. On page 50, Morrie says, "'The other night, on TV, I saw people in Bosnia running across the street, getting fired upon, killed, innocent victims... and I just started to cry. I feel their anguish as if it were my own. I don't know any of these people. But-- how can I put this? I'm almost... drawn to them.'" Mitch then talks about how, as a journalist, he's reported on many stories like that. People were being killed, innocent people were being killed, and he never cried, he even went to the funerals of some of these people. But he never cried. He didn't understand why Morrie felt so attached to these people. I think that most of the world, because they don't know any of the people personally, they aren't affected as much. If they see refugees getting shot at, and killed, it wouldn't affect them as much as, say, their own child being shot at. I feel like becuase they don't know these people personally, they have a lack of compassion, which Morrie also talks about.

      Earlier in the book, Morrie had said, "The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We're teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it. Create your own. Most people can't do it. They're more unhappy than me-- even in my current condition" (Albom 35). I very much agree with that statement. I feel as though in our culture, we are taught to judge people who are different. So many people try so hard to fit in, myself included, because they are afraid of standing out and being judged. I also agree with Morrie's other statement, which is that most people are unhappy, even though they don't have any kind of fatal disease, like Morrie. I think that is because our society is also obsessed with things. Materialistic things. We are obsessed with getting the newest shoes, the newest phones, the newest cars, etc. A lot of people think that money will make people happy, when clearly that is not the case. People are unhappy because they are never satisfied with the things that they have. They will always see something else that they want. Morrie, however, surrounds himself with great people. He has great friends, and great family, so he is happy, even in the condition that he is in.