Name: Tuesdays with Morrie
Rating: 4.5 (273 reviews)
Author: Mitch Albom

What’s in it for me? Discover a powerful story of connection, and learn how to live a meaningful life.

Have you ever lost touch with someone who once meant the world to you? If you haven’t, consider what it might be like to slowly drift out of each other’s lives – or to separate with the intention of keeping up the relationship, but never quite finding the time to do so.

It’s painful, right? You might feel guilt, disappointment, or regret about not reaching out. You might yearn for the connection you used to have, or the person you were during that time.

Now imagine you learn that person is dying. How would you feel? What would you do?

Well, if you’re like Mitch Albom, you’d reach out to reconnect.

In Tuesdays with Morrie, Albom recounts an incredible final lesson between himself and an old professor of his – Morrie. As Morrie deals with a devastating disease, Albom visits him every Tuesday during the professor’s last three and a half months of life. The book is the final thesis they wrote together, and it covers topics including aging, family, and society.

In this Blink, we’ll trace the men’s special relationship from the beginning to the reconnection and, finally, the end. We’ll delve into some of Morrie’s thoughts on living and dying. And as we do, you’ll find new ways of thinking about life and what matters most.

The old relationship

You know those student-teacher friendships depicted in movies or books? The ones with a quirky, loveable professor and an at-first reluctant student whose confidence blooms under the instructor’s compassionate guidance?

Maybe you had one yourself. Maybe you yearned for one. But Mitch Albom actually experienced that very type of relationship with his university professor, Morrie Schwartz.

As one might expect, when Albom first met Morrie, he was reluctant to open up. But from the start, he knew something was different – this wasn’t going to be a typical, distanced student-teacher relationship. Morrie was the first instructor to ask Albom whether he preferred Mitch or Mitchell. When Albom responded that his friends called him Mitch, Morrie answered that that was what he would call him too. And, the professor said, he hoped to one day be considered Albom’s friend himself.

Morrie taught classes in sociology, psychology, and the study of human relations. Albom took them all. He hadn’t realized the field of study existed before he took Morrie’s courses.

Albom graduated high school a year early, so he was younger than almost every student on campus. Granted, it was only a year difference, but remember how much older the kids in higher grades felt throughout school?

Albom dealt with his insecurity and discomfort at being younger by acting a little edgy, a little hard. Morrie was the one to draw him out of himself while simultaneously building up his self-confidence.

The duo met up nearly every Tuesday – sometimes just to eat together, sometimes to walk, and always to talk philosophy and life. At Morrie’s encouragement, Albom wrote an honors thesis, something he hadn’t even considered himself capable of.

When Albom graduated, he proudly introduced his parents to Morrie, who he’d taken to calling Coach, because that’s what he was – a bit of a life coach, before such a thing had become a popular profession. Albom felt nervous yet excited to be graduating, to be joining the real world. He felt full of potential. And when Morrie told him to stay in touch, he had no doubt that he would.

We all know where this is going, don’t we?

The years apart

Fast forward 16 years from Albom’s college graduation, and he had most decidedly not kept in touch with his old professor. He’d also lost almost all the optimism he’d felt that day, so many years before. As he neared 40, he was experiencing anxiety about how his life was turning out and what the point of everything was.

By society’s popular criteria, Albom’s life was fantastic – he’d become a successful sportswriter, made tons of money, bought fancy cars and a house, gotten married to a woman he loved. And yet Albom couldn’t help feeling he wasn’t successful enough. He felt restless. He worried about aging out and being replaced by younger people.

The new relationship

Have you ever heard news that utterly shocked you? Felt the entire world as you know it begin to crumble?

When Albom learned of Morrie’s struggle with ALS, he went numb at first. Then, he set up a meeting. After 16 years, he wasn’t sure how to feel about reconnecting – besides guilty and awkward.

Final notes on living

How much time have you spent thinking about the meaning of life? Do you have a clear, guiding philosophy for living?

Many of us today don’t. Or we subscribe to societal views, which are often propagated by media and businesses that want us to continually buy new products.

What is Tuesdays with Morrie about?

Tuesdays with Morrie (1997) chronicles an important relationship in Mitch Albom’s life – the one between himself and his old college professor, Morrie. As they reconnect during the professor’s final months of life, they discuss everything from greed and forgiveness to death and a meaningful life.