insufficiency and the lack of purpose they felt in life. He feels that the young are also not very wise because they have little understanding about life. This is why
he enjoys aging. Aging is not just decay...Its growth 118. Morrie embraces aging because he sees it as an opportunity to learn more. He explained that
contrary to many people’s fear, he does not want to remain young because he would always be as ignorant as he once was at a young age. He feels that once
people have found meaning in their lives, they never want to go back and be young again. He feels that if your life has meaning you will want to progress
forward with age by doing more things, seeing more and learning more to appreciate life given. If youre always battling against getting older, youre
always going to be unhappy, because it will happen anyhow 118.” Everything in this world is impermanent and aging is a valuable progress. It is good being young
but it is better to grow and to grow needs time. “You have to find what’s good and true and beautiful in your life as it is now. Looking back makes you competitive.
And, age is not a competitive issue 120.”
4.1.3 Loving
Morrie is a loving person, from his speech in the novel “Love each other or die” 163. Morrie feels that love and compassion are necessary for a person to
be fulfilled and when love abounds, there is no higher sense of fulfillment one can
experience.
“Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it
shouldn’t. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted.”“A tension of opposites, like a pull
on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle.” “A wrestling match. Yes you could describe life that way.” “Which side
wins?” “Love wins. Love always wins.”35 The expression of love and compassion is very important to Morrie,
especially since he lacked such expression in his childhood, with the early death of his mother, and his busy father.
The truth is, when our mothers held us, rocked us, stroked our heads-none of us ever got enough of that. We all yearn in some way to return to those
days when we were completely taken care of-unconditional love, unconditional attention. Most of us didnt get enough 116.
He was lack of love at an early age, for the rest of his life he continuously
offered his love and compassion to others. Love is also important to Morrie as he is nearing the final days of his life.
If you dont have the support and love and caring and concern that you get from a family, you dont have much at all. Love is so supremely important 91. He feels
that without the care of those who love him, he would die and if he did not have his family around him, during his sickness, it would be much harder for him. “I
may be dying, but I am surrounded by loving, caring souls. How many people can say that? 36.” He feels safe knowing his family will never leave and always be
watching out for him. He feels that the love between family members goes hand and hand with letting someone know that there will always be someone there for
them, someone always watching over them. The character of loving person is also shown in the eighth Tuesdays The
truth is, you dont get satisfaction from those things. You know what really gives you satisfaction? ...Offering others what you have to give. 126. Morrie says this
during the eighth Tuesday when he and Mitch discuss money. Those things, to
which Morrie is referring, are money and materialistic possessions. He feels that living a full life and being satisfied means offering other people what we have to
give.”You cant substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship 125”. Morrie feels that there are so
many people who are in need of some compassion and if we all devoting ourselves to loving others, and to the community, it will gives our life a purpose
and meaning Morrie also emphasis on we should not only give love but also to let it
comes in and be loved as Morrie said that The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in 51”. Morrie emphasizes the
importance of giving out love and showing affection. He thinks that a lot of people feel that they do not deserve love and if they let love in, they become too
soft. He quotes Levine in saying, love is the only rational act 52. They way
Morrie emphasizes this quote, indicate that this will be the recurring themes throughout the novel. Morrie derived this theory due to the lack of love present
throughout his childhood. Morries mother
died when he was very young and his father was often working and not interested in showing affection toward Morrie
and his brother. When Eva came into their house
she provided them with all the motherly love of which they had been deprived. Morrie realized just how
important it is to be compassionate towards others and emphasized that for the remainder of his life.
“So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half- asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This
is because they’re chasing the wrong things. 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 43.”
Morrie had once told Mitch at the beginning of the novel when he was describing his job and his lifestyle. Mitch was a very busy, career and success
oriented sports reporter. He chased money, success, and materialistic things. Morrie had told him how so many people get caught leading a meaningless life;
they become too involved in their job, money, and fall under the popular culture dictatorship. Morrie feels that so many people are mislead thinking all of these
things are important and they are too busy chasing these things that their life passes right by them.
“This is part of what family is about, not just love, but letting others know there’s someone who is watching out for them. Knowing that your family
will be there watching out for you. Nothing else will give you that. Not money. Not fame. Not work 92.”
Morrie says that to create meaning in our life, we must love and show
compassion for others. This way we create our own meaning of life and do not waste our life chasing false and superficial dreams. Ironically, Mitch lives this
exact life of chasing the wrong things. Morrie imply that as long as we can love each other and remember this
feeling of love, we can die without ever going away because all of the love we have created will still remain. He means that after we die, we live on in the hearts
of everyone we have touched and nurtured while we were on earth. This also emphasizes and expands on Morries concept of always giving love and
compassion; if we are able to form these loving relationships while we are on
earth, not only will we live more fulfilled and substantial lives, but when we die
our love and relationship will remain in the hearts of those who we love. Death
ends a life, not a relationship 174.
4.1.4 Forgiving
