My Saturday with Morrie
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Endured a gruelling 7-hour hair styling session in the name of vanity with Tuesdays with Morrie as my reading companion.
As I waited for my turn at the salon, popular Professor Morrie discovered that he had a degenerative disease where his body would waste away and eventually he would become frozen inside his own flesh. As the first drops of shampoo fell on my hair, the author named Mitch, who was also Morrie's student, reunited with his favourite professor and visited the latter every Tuesday for his lesson on the Meaning of Life. As my hair reeked the first smell of chemical, Morrie talked about self-pity. Have a daily limit, just a few tearful minutes, then on with the day. As my hair was getting ironed out, Morrie imparted his views on Death.
"... most of us all walk around as if we're sleepwalking. We really don't experience the world fully, because we're half-asleep, doing things we automatically think we have to do...
... you strip away all that stuff and you focus on the essentials. When you are going to die, you see everything much differently.
... learn how to die, and you learn how to live."
I feel my mind is like a washing machine that's struggling to spin while jammed with several years worth of laundry. Just what are the real essentials that I'd been ignoring? What are my distractions? There has to be some things I'm doing right. While I felt for many of Morrie's views as well as stories, I was not able to turn these feelings from fragmented thoughts into a kind of enlightenment I sorely craved. These thoughts are all squashed at some bottleneck somewhere, and that always result in a blank stare whenever asked the age old question, 'What doth thou want from Life?' There are so many things going on. Where do I start? Seriously in need of a life coach... seriously in need of a Morrie.
As my scalp and bum were getting numb from over stimulation and the other from over sitting, a weakened Morrie gave his final interview on the "Nightline" with Ted Koppel. In his final words, Morrie asked people to be compassionate and take responsibility for each other. While reading his subsequent exchange with Koppel after his interview, the hair dresser asked if the hair dryer was too hot and I realised that my eyes were red and watery.
I quickly replied, "Yeah, the hair dryer was too hot." Hope she did not see me blush.
Finally, Morrie said goodbye to the author and parted peacefully from the world in the next chapter. His words left a huge imprint on Mitch who in turn helped spread the same imprint to grateful readers like myself. Yet another item to add to my washing machine chock-full of thoughts, still soaking it in and still struggling to spin, but at least Morrie's life philosophies doubled up as a fantastic softener.
Note after posting: It's a Tuesday! Wasn't intended this way, but it's oddly coincidental. |
