To be honest, when I first began reading this book, I thought I would have trouble getting through it. It didn’t seem that interesting; it wasn’t what I would normally read. Well, I was in for a big surprise. I NEVER expected I would enjoy the novel this much. I cried, and I cried, and I cried. I don’t think I have ever been so moved by a book. It changed my perspective on a lot of things, especially life and death, and how they intermix with society.

This book made me realize how precious life is. One minute your living, and the next your dead. That’s what life boils down to: birth, the in between, and death. We must learn to cherish every single day we have with our loved ones. I loved Morrie’s perspective on life in today’s society. Basically, everyone is just too wrapped up in wanting power, money, and shiny things to realize the little things in life-the sound of their children’s footsteps on the floor, the smile of their significant other, even, as Morrie puts it, the seasons changing outside the window. What we need to do is step back, breathe, and give thanks to God for letting us wake up this morning. Another item people in today’s society have trouble with is love. Morrie’s favorite quote from Auden, “Love each other or die.” We don’t realize how lucky we are to be able to communicate, move, and LOVE. We need other humans, those close personal relationships we form with those we love. The problem is that we, as imperfect human beings, don’t know HOW to communicate with those we love. We make our remarks, offend the other person, and we have a situation like Morrie and his friend Norman. We hold a grudge, lose people we love, and feel remorse. We have to remember that our time here is limited, and we must make the most of our stay here on earth.

My personal perspective on death has changed as well. Tuesdays with Morrie opened my eyes to the idea that death isn’t all that bad. It’s going to happen to all of us at some point; it just depends on how we view it. Do we push it off or do we embrace it? Morrie embraced it; he chose to spend his final days touching the lives of others, not wallowing in self-pity. So many Americans choose to view death as something bad, something everyone is running from, trying to avoid. If we embrace death, and look at it as something survivable, it wouldn’t be so hard to accept. There wouldn’t be such a dark shadow on death and the grieving process wouldn’t be as hard as it is now.

Overall, life and death are very similar. Morrie had a realization of that at a young age. He knew he had to take life every day as his last, and “Love each other or die.” He lit up at the slightest touch, something so every day and simple. He realized that it was the little things in life that mattered, not the materialistic objects. That is what every single human being should realize. Our life is a blessing, how we choose to view that blessing, is our own choice.