Tuesdays with Morrie: Review

Tuesdays with Morrie
By Mitch Albom
Published in 1998 (Australia/NZ)
Published by Hachette Australia
ISBN: 978-0-7336-0955-8

I bought this book myself and am reviewing it of my own accord. It also counts towards the Gilmore Girls Reading Challenge.

Morrie Schwartz

Image credit: Here

Occasionally you come across a book that makes you stop and think. Really think. About the big things - life, love, what's important and what's not. Tuesdays with Morrie is one of those books. I bought it at Brisbane airport on the way home from Taiwan a couple of years ago and had always intended to read it, especially as it had been highly recommended to me by a few people. It's taken me a while to get to it but I'm glad it did in a way - I feel like now I'm in a better place to appreciate the message of the book.

Mitch Albom graduated from university intent on fulfilling his dream of becoming a pianist but soon realised that the world is a pretty harsh place and sometimes the need to earn money supersedes passion for the things we love. Before he knew it, he was well and truly in the rat race: working insane hours as a sports journalist, earning good money but not being entirely true to the ideals he had once held back in his university days. A major influence on these ideals was his old sociology professor Morrie Schwartz. This unique and sparkling gentleman was beloved by many of his students, including Mitch. During his undergraduate degree, Mitch and Morrie had shared a special relationship that went beyond the classroom. They had many lunches together - usually on a Tuesday - during which they would discuss a wide variety of topics. They grew close over the four years and when he graduated, Mitch promised to stay in touch. Unfortunately, as happens with so many of us, this promise lapsed as life got in the way and other things took priority over the old professor he had once held in such high regard. Until, that is, he overheard Morrie's name on a Nightline broadcast.

Morrie was dying - he had contracted ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease) - but refusing to give up he went into intellectual overdrive, using his own death as an opportunity for research and discussion. As a result he began producing more and more of his aphorisms for life, which a friend of his collected and sent to the Boston Globe. The resulting piece in the Boston Globe caught the attention of the folks at Nightline and they decided to make a documentary about this extraordinary man as he studied his own dying process.

Mitch flew to visit Morrie, whom he hadn't seen in 16 years and so started Morrie's final class with Mitch as his only student, learning lessons about life through looking at death head-on. Mitch recorded these conversations and wrote this memoir as a result. Initially, the project was done with the sole intention of finding a way to pay Morrie's medical bills but became an international success, selling 11 million copies world wide.

And really, it's easy to see why. Reading this book feels good. It renews hope and inspiration. It relights the fires of determination in a world that too often does all it can to put that fire out. Morrie is the professor/uncle/father/neighbour everyone wishes they'd known and by reading this book the reader gets to 'know' a small slice of Morrie. Although someone more cynical might dismiss some of the things that Morrie says as being over-sentimental or simplistic, I think that he's bang on the money. And what's wrong with sentimentality and simplicity anyway? Why make life so complicated and hard-nosed? If more people could embrace life with the enthusiasm and mentality that Morrie had the world would be a very different place.

I very much enjoyed reading this book. It was a quick read but at the same time deeply meaningful. I finished the last few pages on the train and just sat, thinking for the rest of the way home, letting the words settle over me like a soothing blanket. Life is about the small moments of joy: a ray of sun hitting your desk a certain way; a joke shared with good friends; a cute baby smiling at you from across the train carriage. For those who are feeling overwhelmed or out of touch with the joy of life, this book would be a great antidote. For the rest of us, it's a timely reminder of what's important.

Read and enjoy.

Related links and videos:

Mitch Albom's Webpage

The Nightline Interviews:


Morrie's Quotes:

The most awesome wedding invites. Ever.

As anyone who knows me will know, I am a complete nut for not only books but stationery, pens and all things paper-based. I was that kid who couldn't wait for summer to be over so I could buy new exercise books and colour-coordinate my folders. My favourite thing about planning my wedding was making the invitations. And I thought my invites were pretty darn cool.... until I saw these on Jessica Claire's website/blog:

If you'd like to see the genius behind these invites, have a look at her website.

I take my hat off. In fact, they're so beautiful I almost want to cry.

The day they chose hope over fear: 20-01-09

Barack Obama courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Surely Barack Hussein Obama has one of the least likely names for a United States president. His middle name, Hussein, is the last name of the much-loathed dictator of Iraq whom American forces deposed. His last name rhymes with the still hunted Osama who was supposed to be behind the 9/11 attacks. These two names are inextricably linked to some of America's darkest moments in recent history. Yet isn't it wonderfully symbolic that the man with an unlikely name and of unlikely origin stood before us and promised to lead the way out of these dark days and into the light of a hopeful future. The man "whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served in a local restaurant." The man who is half Kenyan, half white, 100% American. The man upon whose shoulders rest not only the hopes of a nation but the entire world.

Watching his speech this morning on the TVNZ website (slept through the live coverage, oops) I was compelled to make notes. It's one of he most quotable speeches I have heard in a very long time. It mixed the exact amount of patriotism with the right amount of progressive thinking and had wisdom and inspiration sprinkled liberally on top. I'm not American, but I'll tell you something for free - I was inspired and moved by this speech. 

So much of the speech resonated for me personally. The two main quotes I noted were:

"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are the wrong side of history; but we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

"...also it is a parent's willingness to nurture a child that finally decides our fate."

These have been dark days. Not only for the USA but for other countries around the world. Wars have ripped countries, lands, villages and families asunder. Poverty has struck at the very heart of even the most wealthy nation in this world. Natural disasters have brought so many areas of the world to their knees. This is not the first time nor will it be the last that a series of bad things have happened in a certain period of history, but I firmly believe that the interpretation of these events is seen through the lens of the morale of the people. 

The morales of the people of America have surely taken a severe beating over the last eight years. Has global opinions of the American people ever been so low? And to be honest, this bad rep wasn't entirely fair for most of them. The Americans the rest of us in the world were actually beating up on were Bush, Cheney and that crew. And anyone insane enough to vote for them a second time. The slump in the world's shoulders when 'four more years' was announced was clearly visible. Thank God and reason and faith that enough voters got smart this time around. 

Obama is the ray of hope that was needed. And perhaps, just perhaps, America needed to hit the rock bottom of the last four years to truly appreciate the genius that I believe Obama will display in his leadership. Maybe it was the walk through the Valley of the Shadow of George. Whatever it has been, it is thankfully over. Bush left the office with an approval rating of 22%. Only one in five people actually thought he'd done a good job. Ouch. Doesn't look like he'll be on the Inspirational Speakers Circuit unless he's touting "How not to be a President." It'll be interesting to see where he winds up. 

No matter. The past is gone, hustled out by the fizzing buzz of pure anticipation of today's inauguration. Their work is cut out for them but with Obama at the helm, Americans are finally able to start the task of picking themselves up, dusting themselves off and looking towards the horizon of their new future. I congratulate you, America. You've picked a star. 

Impending marriage and other fun things...

I'm getting married in a few months.

Wow.

Even looking at that, black and white, typed on the page is a little bit unreal. Don't get me wrong, I am really excited about being married to my future hubby. It's not the being married to him that is strange and unreal to me. It's the fact that I'm 'here' already. I've looked forward to it for so long that it hardly seems that it can be true that it's so close now.

It's going to be a huge change for me, mentally. Although I already feel a part of my in-laws family, this is the sealing of the deal. The changing of my last name will be a good symbolic step I think. The leaving behind of past hurts and moving forward with a new identity (almost) into my future. It's a necessary and much welcomed step but there's still that tiny tug of apprehension that you always feel when you place your heart, trust and destiny in the hands of another. Having grown up in a situation where I couldn't trust those around me with the above mentioned things, I find it really difficult to let go and trust someone else completely.

I want to. I just need to let myself do it.

Lunching with Michele

[Photo taken by Gregory Wood]

"I hear you've done an assignment on one of my poems?"
Here I am. I am face to face with my favourite poet and one of my literary idols, Michele Leggott. And she's talking to me. Me! So, of course, my mind goes blank at the all crucial moment, robbing me of anything even mildly intelligent to say. Of all the times my mind chooses to stop working (and it does it with alarming regularity), why now!!

Bumbling idiot act aside, this experience of meeting Michele was one of the most outstanding and inspirational experiences of my entire life. For those of you who are not familiar with contemporary NZ poetry, Michele Leggott is our current Poet Laureate, a massively accomplished and brilliant poet. Her poetry publications include:

Like This? Poems. Christchurch: Caxton Press, 1988.
Swimmers, Dancers. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1991.
DIA. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1994.
As Far As I Can See. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1999.
Milk & Honey. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2005; Cambridge: Salt, 2006.
Journey to Portugal. Collages by Gretchen Albrecht. Auckland: Holloway Press, 2007.

She came to Massey's Albany campus to give a lecture in the Chancellor's Series and what a treat it was. She read us five of her poems which are all the more beautiful when read out by their author; showed us her tokotoko (the ceremonial stick each Poet Laureate is given, each personally designed for them by Jacob Scott) and then spoke about her writing and its current connection to journeys.

If this was the closest I got to Michele Leggott ever again, I would die a very happy woman. However, our wonderful lecturers Mary and Jack arranged for us to have lunch with her afterwards. Which was where I found myself, directly opposite one of the women I admire most, barely able to remember my own name, let alone the poem of hers I had written about. It was of course, a woman, a rose and what has it have to do with her or they with one another, a poem I have read many times and love dearly. My most sincere apologies to Michele for my appalling memory.

Over lunch, our group had the opportunity to discuss her work, her teaching, her Laureateship and inspiration with her. I think the two things that stood out for me the most of all of the things she said were that she takes her inspiration from her journey through life (including trips to the shops as well as Portugal) and that, when I answered her question "Are any of you here writers?" with "I try to be" she said, "No, you say, YES, I am a writer."

So, YES. I am a writer. And I have Michele Leggott to thank for a boost of creative confidence. It doesn't get much better than that!

LINKS:
Poet Laureate Blog
Michele Leggott Author Page at NZEPC
Michele Leggott NZ Book Council Page

Work in progress...

The novel that I have been promising myself that I will write "one day" has finally kicked off. It started life as a short story but quickly grew legs and has definitely become a longer piece of fiction. I'm using a significant event in my life (the how I came to leave home story that some of you will know) as a jump off point but then going down a fictional pathway.

I'm quite excited - I'm about 5000 words into it and have had some good feedback so far plus I am enjoying writing it, which is always a good sign for the progression of something beyond the point of being an idea. So watch this space!

The inspirational drought is broken!

I haven't written anything here for ages!


Why? I wondered. I think it was because I ran out of things to say. I had a serious creative drought in the last half of last year, brought about mainly by emotional stress I think. When you're constantly dodging verbal land mines and looking over your shoulder, waiting for the next relational bomb to drop in the landscape of your personal life, it becomes hard to look into the imaginary world and create something. Focusing on survival does that to you. Only the most immediate and most urgent tasks have any priority and everything else seems superfluous.

Anyways, now I have figured out how to add photos, I think this should help jazz things up around here. Here's a couple of photos in which I find inspiration. Both are photos taken in Taiwan during August 2007.


Quiet contemplation in the park.


The Taipei skyline from the 101 observatory deck.

So where to from here? Hopefully I'll be able to find my voice again and move forward with my writing and/or photography!