Book: Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom

The book boasts 11 million copies in print, so it probably doesn't need any introductions. As a bestseller, it even edges out Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, which stood at 9 million. (Although Hawking's book is more of an unread bestseller.)

To summarise, an old professor got Lou Gehrig's disease (same as Hawking); a student goes back to see him every Tuesday in the last few months of the professor's life; they talk about life.

Yet the book is more about death. About a man who had accepted death, chosen how he would face his death, and used his death to teach people how to live.

The book is a godsend, in the sense that the advance from publishers helped paid for an old man's medical expenses and made his final days comfortable. It is also incredible, in the sense that it even made me envy his death, in spite of the many indignities and pains of his prolonged and debilitating demise.

Morrie led an unremarkable life. No empires, no fortune, no fame to his name. He's a professor of a subject with no scientific, economic nor theological consequence. He made friends when he lived, and little more. But his death did not go unremarked.

The courage he demonstrated, and his views of life from a dying man's perspective, lent inspiration to many. In the book, he talked about the world, self pity, regrets, death, family, emotions, aging, money, love, marriage, culture, and forgiveness.

It's very Chicken-Soup stuff. Almost essential reading for those touchy-feely people out there.

But somehow, I felt underwhelmed by the book. Maybe it's because I felt as if most of the issues are already covered in the bible. So who are the 11 million plus plus readers who are lapping up this stuff up, and writing to Morrie calling him a prophet?

To draw an analogy... The book tasted like high fructose corn syrup. It's a cheaper form of sugar. Tastes sweeter. But it doesn't stimulate insulin production and suppresses leptin so you still feel hungry after eating it. It also metabolizes into triglycerides easier.

Am just a little worried that many in this day and age are turning to chicken soup as a source of spiritual food. I'm not a Jesus freak, and at times I'm ashamed of my luke-warm Christianity. But I have a fear of false prophets. I have an aversion to 'spirituality' that is too easy to attain.

It's just my thinking, that the Devil has more to gain in convincing the world that Heaven is so easily attainable.

Morrie is agnostic.

Camel. Eye of a needle. That's what Jesus said.


I did enjoy Tuesdays with Morrie. I am in awe of his courage in the face of a slow and undignified death. I agree with his rejection of the complexities of life, and his advocacy of love. And I aspire to die as he did, bravely, and with friends and family.

But my life has long been changed before the book came along. So I remind myself that the book is corn syrup, and not to neglect healthier nourishment.

Yet, a little bit of Pepsi every once in a while can be very satisfying.

"As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there. You live on-in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were here."