HW 22 - Illness & Dying Book Part 1

Precis:
In the book tuesdays with morrie by Mitch Albom the main topic is about death and how to deal with it.  Morrie is a man who has a disease that goes by the name of Lou Gehrig's disease.  In the first 60 pages of the book you really get a good insight on what it is like to experience death.  Moirrie talks about how he deals with death and everything that comes with it.  He explains how he feels and how he tries to make the best out of his situation.  On page 21 Morrie says, "When this all started, I asked myself, am I going to withdraw from the world, like most people do, or am I going to live? I decided i'm going to live- or at least try to live-the best way I want, with dignity, with courage, with humor, with composure".  This just goes to show you that he wants enjoy the time that he has left, he doesn't want to sit around and complain about death, he wants to live his remaining days in happiness.

Insightful quotes:

1.) Ted,"So how do you know things are going downhill?"  Morrie,"Nobody can know it but me Ted, but I know it". (pg. 69-70)
 -This quote for me was particularly interesting because although there is evidence from doctors that  Morrie is very sick he still believes that only he can know when things are really starting to get bad.

2.) "Listen, I have to pee.  Would you mind helping? Are you okay with that?". (pg.11)
- What this is showing is that even with this disease he is still comfortable to ask people for help.  It shows that he is comfortable and doesn't to be treated any differently.

3.) "You know Mitch, now that i'm dying i've become more interesting to people".(pg.32)
- This to me makes it seem like you don't really know how good something is until its either gone or you know that it's getting taken away from you.

Morrie and Mitches relationship reminds me of me and my 4th and 5th grade teachers relationship.  His name is Themi and he was just like Morrie in my opinion.  He is a nice sweet kind hearted and intelligent man who thought of me as his favorite student.  Like Mitch I would often go out of my way to spend extra time with Themi and help him when he was in need.  Themi was a teacher for about 15 or 16 years and he retired 2 years ago.  Out of all the former students he had I was the only one who showed up at his retirement party.  Similar to Mitch being Morries only former student who came to visit him while he was ill.  Teachers like this come along once in a life time and when they do you have to make the best out of your time with them, because trust me you will miss those moments that you had with him or her, I miss having Themi as a teacher every day.

Albom, Mitch. tuesdays with Morrie. 1. New York: Doubleday, 1997. Print.