Life lesson 101

            
             Are you afraid to express your feelings about death, marriage, love and other personal things? Mitch Albom is. Tuesdays with Morrie, written by Mitch Albom, is a true story about Morrie Schwartz who was the Mitch's favorite professor in college. Unfortunately after graduation Mitch was too busy, working for the Detroit Press, to keep in touch with Morrie though he often thought fondly of him. Nearly sixteen years after graduation Mitch learns that Morrie is suffering from ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and he goes and visits his favorite professor. For the next several weeks, until Morrie's death, Mitch visits Morrie once a week on Tuesday's to discuss life. It is because of Morrie's influence that Mitch is able to change his own life and outlook to become more like his professor, his mentor, who has encouraged him thought his weekly lessons. Through Morrie's weekly lessons on death, loving relationships and popular culture norms Mitch grows into a much happier person.
             The first major life lesson that Morrie uses to change Mitch's outlook on life is learning how to accept death. On Mitch's first visit Morrie says to Mitch, "you know that I"m dying, shall I tell you what it's like? To die" (Albom29)? This is going to be Morrie's first lesson accepting death. Mitch is shocked by Morrie's acceptance of his disease and his death sentence. Alain Botton of the New York Times states, "the professor was not afraid of big statements: Once you learn to die, you learn how to live" (Botton 2). Morrie is trying to tell Mitch in this statement that one must accept the possibility of one's own death before he can truly appreciate what he has on earth. This is a sobering awareness to Mitch that one day everything he has will all be out of reach. Morrie urges Mitch to appreciate and value what one can have only for a limited period of time, and to use every moment of that time doing something that you will not regret.