Tuesdays with Morrie

An Old Man, A Young Man, and Life's Greatest Lesson

By Mitch Albom

**Estimated Reading Time:** 45 minutes

**What You'll Learn:** How to live with meaning, face mortality without fear, build relationships that matter, and create a life guided by love rather than cultural expectations. You will learn what a dying professor taught his former student about the essential truths of human existence.

**Who This Book Is For:** Anyone who has ever felt that life is moving too fast, that success feels hollow, that relationships deserve more attention, or that death is too frightening to contemplate. This book is for people who sense there must be more to living than earning and consuming.

The last class of Morrie Schwartz's life took place in his home, in a study overlooking a small hibiscus plant, every Tuesday. The subject was The Meaning of Life. There were no grades, no exams, no required reading. The only textbook was experience. The only assignment was to listen. Mitch Albom was sixteen when he first met Morrie Schwartz at Brandeis University. Morrie was his sociology professor, a man who danced during lectures, who led protests on campus, who treated students as equals and friends. Mitch took every class Morrie offered. On graduation day, he introduced his parents to Morrie and promised to keep in touch. Morrie hugged him, told him he was proud, and whispered that Mitch was a good soul. Then Mitch disappeared into adult life. He became a sports journalist, then a television personality. He worked constantly. He chased deadlines, paychecks, recognition. He stopped calling his old professor. He forgot the promise entirely. Sixteen years later, Mitch saw Morrie's face on television. The man was dying. Morrie Schwartz had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, the cruel neurodegenerative disease that gradually paralyzes the body while leaving the mind intact. Morrie was using his final months to teach the world something. He was giving interviews, sharing his thoughts on what it means to live well while dying slowly. Mitch flew to Massachusetts. He arrived at Morrie's house nervous, guilty, carrying bags of food he didn't know Morrie could no longer eat. He found his old professor in a wheelchair, still sharp, still warm, still teaching. Morrie smiled and asked if Mitch would come back. They agreed on Tuesdays. What followed was fourteen weeks of conversations that became the last class of Morrie Schwartz's life. They talked about death, fear, aging, money, love, marriage, family, forgiveness, and the search for meaning. Morrie spoke. Mitch listened. And in those Tuesday meetings, a young man who had spent sixteen years chasing the wrong things began to understand what he had been missing. The problem this book addresses…