Tuesdays with Morrie
This is my second time starting this post. I’m reading the book by Mitch Albom and taking my own notes. The first draft has been lost to… arrogance? I didn’t save my work and now it’s gone. It went something like this:
Gut: I should save this
Head: I’m sure there’s an auto save function.
My head was wrong. Alas, I won’t go back— let’s move forward, shall we?
Notes and reflections from by Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom.
Morrie might have died without ever seeing me again. I had no good excuse for this, except the one that everyone these days seems to have. I had become too wrapped up in the siren song of my own life. I was busy.
I, too, have had periods of my life where I was “too busy” for the people I love. I also recognize the brevity of time I have with them so I minimize that excuse. Result, I am not allowed to say “I’m too busy” but I am allowed to say “I don’t want to”, “It’s not most important to me right now”. Telling the truth helps me make decisions that are intentional and sincere. I also find that forcing myself to say “it’s not most important to me right now” requires me to interrogate whether that sentence is true. I consider “busy” to be an excuse.
while I spent so many hours on things that meant absolutely nothing to me personally
This is also why I left social media. I want to fill my time with things that matter to me, personally.
He had created a cocoon of human activities—conversation, interaction, affection—and it filled his life like an overflowing soup bowl.
In the parlance of Black internet culture: mood.
The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”
No notes. Completely agree.
I was stunned at how easily things went on without me.
The Ego be lying! The world is so much bigger than each of us individually.
“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.”
Again. No notes. Completely agree.
It’s also wonderful because of all the time I get to say good-bye.” He smiled. “Not everyone is so lucky.”
To be able to say goodbye… what gift. I hear people say flippantly “if I had known that was the last time I was going to [fill in the blank] I’d have [blanked] harder!” But I don’t think they always recognize what truism they’ve touched on.
“To know you’re going to die, and to be prepared for it at any time. That’s better. That way you can actually be more involved in your life while you’re living.”
Morrie was correct! Accepting that you stress going to die provides a specific context and focus for decision making. When people say, “use you PTO” it sounds different.
“We are too involved in materialistic things, and they don’t satisfy us. The loving relationships we have, the universe around us, we take these things for granted.”
I have nothing to add.
contribute without exploiting others.
That’s the goal. Especially considering how little Care capitalism has for humanity.
“We’ve got a form of brainwashing going on in our country,” Morrie sighed. “Do you know how they brainwash people? They repeat something over and over. And that’s what we do in this country. Owning things is good. More money is good. More property is good. More commercialism is good. More is good. More is good. We repeat it—and have it repeated to us—over and over until nobody bothers to even think otherwise. The average person is so fogged up by all this, he has no perspective on what’s really important anymore.
This idea is going to get a longer post at sometime, I’m sure. But for now I’ll say this. This country is founded on capitalism and it shows.
Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.
Again! No notes.
giving to other people is what makes me feel alive
My favorite experience is helping people. Full stop. Listening to stories, being a shoulder to lean on, caring about what people care about.
That’s all I have to share here. It feels abrupt to end here but this is all I have right now. Cheers.
xoxo