Morrie Report

This book is a memoir of a sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz who was dying of ALS. The author, a newspaper sports columnist was his student in college, fondly recalls in the beginning of the book the meaning of the name Morrie, which from its root word in Hebrew, means “my teacher”.
To summarise very briefly, Albom is a sports columnist with the Detroit Free Press and after seeing Schwartz on a television show, he called his teacher up. Despite a gap of 16 years, and the disease, Schwartz remembered his former pupil and Albom visited him. Due to a newspaper strike, Albom is freed to commute weekly on Tuesdays to spend some time with his professor. This book is a recollection of Schwartz’s lectures in those Tuesdays and indeed, very moving too.

One realises that there are other angles and different lenses to view the world from. For instance, given the Burley fields visit one particular moment that was talked about in the book came out with stunning clarity. The poor farmer when asked for some water to drink, took one of us to the shop, and bought the water packets. Any attempts by us to pay for it were rejected, for he said we were his guests and that was his duty. It was very moving to see this, when one has continually encountered the very opposite behaviour in cities.
Morrie also makes one realize how good life really is, despite his ailing condition. Not only that, the point that time is the most valuable treasure granted to us was reinforced by Morrie quite a lot of times. He also talks about how social binders of Money, Power, etc. prevent people from doing that which they want to do. Here the author expressed his own story as well, for he had wanted to be a pianist when he grew up, but the pressure to earn a comfortable living, although he liked his job a lot, had diverted him away from