Reflections on Tuesdays With Morrie—Pages 1-70.
In moments of extreme emotions, the inward man or woman
is revealed. Who we truly are—in all of
its splendor or sorrow—is expelled from the confines of the soul for all to
behold. Some emotions are certainly
permissible such as the sudden or hasty frustrations brimming from the boiling
moment. Nevertheless, there are
undoubtedly moments of understanding.
Such an instant arose with Morrie, when told he had Lou Gehrig’s
disease.
“But my old professor had made a profound decision, one
he began to construct the day he came out of the doctor’s office with a sword
hanging over his head. Do I wither up and disappear, or do I make
the best of my time left? He had
asked himself.
“He would not wither.
Hew ould not be ashamed of dying.
“Instead he would make death his final project, the
center point of his days. Since everyone
was going to die, he could be of great value, right? He could be research. A human textbook. Study
me in my slow and patient demise. Watch
what happens to me. Learn with me.
“Morrie would walk that final bridge between life and
death, and narrate the trip” (p. 10).
Always, in the most sallow darkness, we can find reasons
to persist. We can find reasons to
endure.
“There are some mornings when I cry and cry and more for
myself. Some mornings, I’m so angry and
better. But it doesn’t last too
long. Then I get up and say, ‘I want to
live…’ (p. 21).
This exemplary decision can and should be reciprocated in
each of our lives. Rather than moping in
the mire of melancholy, if we come to accept our lot and press forward, we
shall be endowed with a bestowal of piercing perception. This perception shall penetrate the woes of
the present and allow us to see life for what it truly is. Then with resolution and resolve we declare
to the world: “Your best has not bested me!
Keep your woes, keep your pity, and keep your sour sulking sadness! I need them not, for I have problems enough
of my own!”
Although our physical state be filled with pain, why
force this anguish upon our mental capacities.
Often the suffering of body comes coupled with the shooting suffering of
mind—but according to Morrie, we don’t have to accept it. We can reject this poisonous plague, which if
allowed, will engulf our entire world, enveloping all in grotesque black.
Undeniably this is all easier on paper than it is in
practice. Without question, circumstance
yields to men and women misery too immeasurable to bear. Yet always there remains a part in which, we
are still sovereign. Our autonomy doesn’t
flee at the sight of affliction—the two sit along side each other—autonomy only
surrendering because it is easier.
Misery is easy, self-pity is facile, depression is effortless—rather they
appear to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment