Tuesday People
A Book Review by Lucas Dourado

Introduction
As I came across tuesdays with Morrie and perused the cover in Borders one afternoon, I couldn’t help but notice the writing emblazoned on the top of the cover:

“THE RUNAWAY BESTSELLER THAT CHANGED MILLIONS OF LIVES”

tuesdays with Morrie is a book that most people have heard about and many have read. I consider myself to be somewhat of a nonconformist so the idea of jumping on the tuesdays with Morrie bandwagon didn’t exactly entice me to read this book. I decided to read this book, not because I wanted my life to be changed like the millions that the cover boasted of, but because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. To be honest, my life was not really changed by reading this book. In pondering the universal quality of this book, I came to realize that the book’s greatest strength is Mitch Albom’s ability to capture humanness. Morrie’s command to seize the day is a powerful message, but what struck me the most about this book is the fact that the nature of humanness allows bonds to be formed – first between Mitch and Morrie, and then between Mitch and the world. The more human we allow ourselves to be and the more we realize the humanness of the others we encounter, the more we will find ourselves forming relationships that surpass the realm of small talk. In essence, what struck me more than Morrie’s inspirational message was the quality of the relationship that was formed by a teacher and student. I have selected excerpts from the story and analyzed the message they convey. The analysis is all original.

Theme: Seize the Day
Morrie’s charge to Mitch and Mitch’s charge to his readers can most simply be put as Carpe Diem, but he traces this through three sub-themes: death, search for meaning, and the true meaning of life.

- Morrie on Death:
“Everyone knows they’re going to die…but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently” (81).
“Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live” (82).

- The first step toward seizing the day or getting more meaning out of life is to realize our own mortality. In these passages, Morrie explains how we are all conscious of death but don’t think about it due to its morbidity. And it is morbid. Thus we are all united in our mortality and in the notion that we will live forever, because for us, a lifetime is forever. Morrie is unique, because his death is basically scheduled. He knows he will die within the next several months. Because of this, he takes advantage of every opportunity to really know people. Each conversation is therefore invaluable. He then turns the table to us. Our death is scheduled too. It may be farther off, but it is nevertheless scheduled. Why then should we not take advantage of the endless opportunities to know people – truly know them? Why don’t we see each additional day as precious, as a day to say all the things we want to say and do everything we want to do? It is an interesting paradox that all readers can relate with, because like Morrie, our deaths are scheduled.

- Morrie on our search for meaning:
“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” (84).
“People haven’t found meaning in their lives, so they’re running all the time looking for it. They think the next car, the next house, the next job. Then they find those things are empty, too, and they keep running” (136).

- Numerous times in the story, Morrie questions why we waste our time on earth. What things do we pour our energy into that don’t matter? Through this questioning, Mitch realizes that instead of always hustling around trying to move up in the field of sports journalism, he should concentrate on relationships and living life. One relationship that he feels called to restore is with brother, who has cancer and is living in Spain. As Mitch learns, we learn. I am reminded of family members and old friends that I have cut ties with as my interests have turned toward school and new friends. Again, the ideas presented are so universal that not one of us can say they don’t apply to us. We are all searching for meaning and Morrie Schwartz suggests that we find it through relationships.

- Morrie on the meaning of life:
“Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning” (127).

- It is plain and simple. Seize the day. Go out and seize what is most valuable, what is eternal – relationships. My car will break down and I’ll never have enough money but a solid relationship is lasting and invaluable. Don’t go through life without solid relationships where you can build meaning and find purpose.

Communication Concerns
“Before college I did not know the study of human relations could be considered scholarly” (39).
- On the importance of human connectedness:
“Are you trying to be as human as you can be?” (34).
“He speaks of the alienation of youth and the need for ‘connectedness’ with the society around me” (47).

- Humanness and connectedness are difficult concepts. To be connected, we have to be “as human as [we] can be” and view our audience as human. In many of my interpersonal interactions, I see myself as superhuman and my audience as subhuman. This is why connection is never formed. However, when I lower myself and uplift my conversation partner, we both end up on the human level, where we are most similar and the most meaning can be created through conversation. Morrie’s concern is that society has lost connectedness. We don’t know what it is like to have a deep, meaningful, connected relationship. He sees this as the most important thing for humans. In fact, these relationships are what make us human; the deep bonds that only humans can achieve remove us from the animal realm.

“Morrie was given a grant to observe mental patients and record their treatments…Morrie observed that most of the patients there had been rejected and ignored in their lives, made to feel that they didn’t exist” (109-110).
“He saw right to the core of the problem, which was human beings wanting to feel they mattered” (112).

- Here we see it plain and simple. Without loving relationships, we don’t matter. We lose our humanness, as if we’re becoming a new species – like the patients in the mental hospital. If we lose our humanness, we die. The whole reason we run around life searching for meaning is because we fear death. By chasing meaning and ignoring relationships, we are therefore committing suicide. Our lives have been wasted.

In Conclusion
No, I didn’t cry. The story was good, but I didn’t cry. I got much more out of this book than a cheesy inspirational feeling to call my brother and my old friends to restore relationships with them. I was able to see how relationships form. Relationships form when we care about each other. Many people can’t form lasting relationships because they are selfish or just don’t care about others. I observed in the story as Mitch and Morrie’s relationship formed out of their humanness. Morrie was older and wiser, but just as human as Mitch. The reason Morrie was so prolific at forming and maintaining relationships is because he looked to no other quality in a person but their humanness. If his conversation partner was human, there was already a commonality that could lead to connectedness. Morrie’s impending death gave him another commonality with Mitch and all the readers. It draws on our humanness. Death is a concept that we all face and we all share. If we all face it, why don’t we talk about it? If we talked about it, wouldn’t we all understand that life is too short to waste time? Wouldn’t we realize that relationships are lasting and that most everything else is fleeting? Wouldn’t we want to continue developing these relationships and ignore the substance of life that has no meaning? That is the purpose of this book. Form loving relationships. Take advantage of life. I now understand how these loving relationships that give meaning to life form and their importance. Nevertheless, I still didn’t cry.

“We’re Tuesday people” – Morrie Schwartz