Homespun wisdom

ANY book that has spent over three years on the New York Times bestseller list must have some thing going for it. That was the principal reason I picked up Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie (Warner) which, last week, completed a reign of 170 weeks near the top of the bestseller list. The book is subtitled "An Old Man, A Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson" and it is not the sort of book I usually read. But once I opened it, I was hooked, as you sometimes are by exceptionally well told TV sitcoms featuring good ole folks. For that is what Tuesdays with Morrie is in essence - simple, homespun stories and perceptions powerfully retailed.

Mitch Albom is an award-winning sportswriter and he puts his writing skills to good use in this account of the final days of his favourite professor in college, Morrie Schwartz. Long after Mitch had passed out of college, he learned, by chance, that his old professor was dying of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease, "a brutal, unforgiving illness of the neurological system".

Guiltily remembering an old promise to look up his old professor from time to time, Albom makes the journey to Morrie's house in West Newton Massachusetts.

In the writer's words, this is what came next : "The last class of my old professor's life took place once a week in his house, by a window in the study where he could watch a small hibiscus plant shed its pink leaves. The class met on Tuesday. It began after breakfast. The subject was 'The Meaning of Life'. It was taught from experience.

"No books were required, yet many topics were covered, including love, work, community, family, aging, forgiveness, and finally, death. The last lecture was brief, only a few words"

From the moment they met again until Morrie's death, teacher and student addressed the big questions of life and, as always, Morrie was a brilliant teacher. Even as the disease conquered his faculties one by one, his spirit refused to give in. He constantly entertained visitors and - even when he was too far gone to eat, look after himself or even go to the bathroom - he remained an inexhaustible fund of good cheer, wisdom and strength.

Sometime in the course of their time together, the idea of a book came up, and Morrie Schwartz enthusiastically agreed to participate in the project although he knew he would not live to see it published. Not that he minded particularly for, in keeping with one of his homespun aphorisms, death was not a full-stop for the dead person lived on in the hearts and minds of those who loved him and cherished his memory.

By that yardstick, Morrie Schwartz remains very much alive. And, it is very refreshing to think that in today's cynical world, there are still millions of people all over the world, who are attracted to maxims like "Forgive yourself, forgive others" and "Love each other or die" (borrowed from his favourite poet W.H Auden).

Tuesdays with Morrie may not qualify as great literature but it is a book from the heart. It gave me pause, and quite a lot to think about, and I am sure it will have the same effect on anyone who is willing to give it a chance.

DAVID DAVIDAR

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