Tuesdays With Morrie Essay

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ALS first became widely recognized in America when baseball player Lou Gehrig was diagnosed with the disease. Gehrig played for the New York Yankees from 1923 until 1939, when he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He ended his career on the Yankees Stadium as he declared himself “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” This was the first event that raised awareness for ALS in the United States. In more recent years, the ALS ice bucket challenge had people around the world dumping buckets of ice water on themselves to raise awareness and money for ALS. A memoir, written by Mitch Albom, has made the most impact in raising awareness for the disease, however. Tuesdays With Morrie was written for Albom to remember his old professor…show more content…
At first glance, these aphorisms don’t seem to propel the story forward or shed light on a greater theme, but if they are read into deeply these phrases can tie the story together. “He wrote bite-sized philosophies about living with death’s shadow: ‘Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do’; “Accept the past as past, without denying it or discarding it’; ‘Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others’; ‘Don’t assume that it’s too late to get involved’” (6). All of these phrases can be placed under an umbrella of phrases that mean things such as “live and let live” or “go with the flow”. Obviously these are more eloquently written and specific, but in general they all have the same meaning. In each of these phrases, Schwartz conveys the idea that accepting what one cannot do is infinitely better than deluding oneself into believing that they have complete control over their life. Schwartz knew he was on death’s doorstep, and it was these aphorisms that he wanted to leave behind for the world. His desire for the world to know that these were his philosophies is further proof that accepting what one can and cannot do is the true theme of this

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