In today’s society, people actively search for faults in everything because it is human nature to be drawn to negativity. The world is blind and cannot seem to recognize how wonderful life is. Yet, thanks to Tuesday’s with Morrie by Mitch Albom, the main character, Morrie Schwartz, helps turn this outlook around. He shares his optimistic perspective on life which twists the way a person might foresee the world. I found his views to be intriguing and almost bizarre; he spoke about regrets, aging, money, love, culture, forgiveness, emotions, marriage, education, family, and death. Yet, I will be focusing on Morrie’s philosophy on emotions and forgiveness due to the results presented from the two interviews taken to compare viewpoints. My first
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In other words, you can never rightly recognize an emotion until you have allowed it to take over you. If you don’t, those emotions will control your life, thus, living an egotistic life. According to Morrie, a life like that won’t bring you happiness. To him, real happiness comes when you “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). A quote like this stuck to me. When you think about it, how often do people do this? To answer my own question, my interviewees were asked to describe a meaningful life. Person A said, “I had a purpose in life. I helped someone – hopefully many with something I said or did. I feel satisfied that I didn’t waste my time with people.” Person B said, “A life that makes the ones you love live better. Thus, making the world better.” Both answers suggested that they live a selfless life. Nevertheless, what happened next to person A made me realize there is more behind the idea of living a happy life.
Following the conclusion of the interview with Person A, she surrendered to alcohol intoxication because the memories and feelings brought back were too much to bare. To her, alcohol was her way of “detachment,” as Morrie would say. She had yet to allow …show more content…
You need to love yourself, including your flaws, before you can love another. Morrie said this himself towards the very end of his days, “’It’s not just other people we need to forgive, Mitch,’ he finally whispered. We also need to forgive ourselves’” (166). People walk with their heads down because of some unfortunate life event. Tilting their chins back up requires forgiveness with oneself and others. Person A can’t seem to forgive what can’t be changed. When asked in our interview what her philosophy was about forgiveness she said “They say you need to forgive but not forget. I struggle with forgiveness. If you keep remembering bad stuff because you can’t forget- it keeps bringing up bad feelings. So how do you forgive?” In my opinion the answer is simple, but the actual doing can be difficult. You choose to forgive. In the book, Morrie said it about perfectly, “Forgive yourself. Forgive others. Don’t wait”
In other words, you can never rightly recognize an emotion until you have allowed it to take over you. If you don’t, those emotions will control your life, thus, living an egotistic life. According to Morrie, a life like that won’t bring you happiness. To him, real happiness comes when you “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). A quote like this stuck to me. When you think about it, how often do people do this? To answer my own question, my interviewees were asked to describe a meaningful life. Person A said, “I had a purpose in life. I helped someone – hopefully many with something I said or did. I feel satisfied that I didn’t waste my time with people.” Person B said, “A life that makes the ones you love live better. Thus, making the world better.” Both answers suggested that they live a selfless life. Nevertheless, what happened next to person A made me realize there is more behind the idea of living a happy life.
Following the conclusion of the interview with Person A, she surrendered to alcohol intoxication because the memories and feelings brought back were too much to bare. To her, alcohol was her way of “detachment,” as Morrie would say. She had yet to allow …show more content…
You need to love yourself, including your flaws, before you can love another. Morrie said this himself towards the very end of his days, “’It’s not just other people we need to forgive, Mitch,’ he finally whispered. We also need to forgive ourselves’” (166). People walk with their heads down because of some unfortunate life event. Tilting their chins back up requires forgiveness with oneself and others. Person A can’t seem to forgive what can’t be changed. When asked in our interview what her philosophy was about forgiveness she said “They say you need to forgive but not forget. I struggle with forgiveness. If you keep remembering bad stuff because you can’t forget- it keeps bringing up bad feelings. So how do you forgive?” In my opinion the answer is simple, but the actual doing can be difficult. You choose to forgive. In the book, Morrie said it about perfectly, “Forgive yourself. Forgive others. Don’t wait”