Tuesday's_with_Morrie

Our Culture and Media as addressed in Tuesdays with Morrie Mitch Albom tells us about his relationship with his sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz, from his time at Brandeis University and later towards the end of Morrie’s life. Despite having been his favorite professor and promising him to stay in touch after his graduation, Mitch fell out of touch with Morrie. Only after finding out through an interview on “Nightline” that Morrie was ill with ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, does Mitch contact Morrie. In Tuesdays with Morrrie we see the change Mitch goes through as he reconnects with his old professor and himself. “…many topics were covered, including love, work, community, family, aging, forgiveness, and finally, death.” (Albom 1) Mitch begins to question his priorities, his values and his way of life. When Mitch finds Morrie years after his graduation he is at a point in his life where he is feeling discontented. Even though he is successful, has everything he thought he wanted cars, a big house, and money he is not happy. He has a job he is not satisfied with, works long hours, has left behind his passion for music and has no dreams. He is married but has no children even though he has promised his wife they would. After talking to Morrie, Mitch realizes that he has changed so much since his college years. Throughout his meetings with Morrie he remembers the person who he was and his values. Morrie helps him see that our culture by way of the media has a mindset that money brings happiness when in fact happiness can be found through love. Through Mitch we become aware that the O.J. Simpson murder trial is taking place at this time, and that Princes Diana and Andre Agassi have had yet another encounter with the paparazzi. After reading such articles in the newspaper it becomes clear to Mitch what Morrie has been telling him all along. The media feeds our culture rubbish and that our culture is wasting their time reading and following this gossip. An example of the evil in the media are the stories he reads in the Boston newspaper about the two teenage girls who killed a seventy three year old man and the story of a straight man who killed a gay man. This hits Mitch as he knows that up to recently he had spent his time contributing with his writing to the message being sent to our culture. Mitch starts to see the difference between mainstream culture and Morrie’s self created culture. Thanks to Morrie he learns to find a deeper purpose in life rather than looking for happiness in materialistic possessions and his job. Mitch and Morrie talk about death and Mitch is both confused and astounded at how at ease Morrie is taking his impending death. Morrie knows he only has a short time to live and yet he is okay with that. He explains to Mitch that he has accepted his fate and knows that he has lived his life to the fullest. Morrie feels like he has contributed to his community, lived life by his beliefs, and had a loving family, all things that mattered to him. Morrie rejected popular cultural ideas and beliefs that he felt did not suit him. He tries to make Mitch see that he does not need to conform to popular cultural ideas to be happy he has to make his own culture and what he has found to be happiness is love. Although he never tells him that children will bring Mitch happiness he does imply that, he explains, "There is no experience like having children...If you want the experience of having complete responsibility for another human being, and to learn to love and bond in the deepest way, then you should have children." (Albom 93) The key point that Morrie tries and teach Mitch is the importance of rejecting popular cultural ideals. "The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it." (Albom 42) Throughout our life we learn what is expected of us and the way we feel about ourselves is often influenced by our cultural standards. The thing Morrie keeps telling Mitch is that it’s not a one size fits most kind of thing, he has to make his own culture by making his own values and expectations. By making his own culture he will free himself and live a happier life. One thing Mitch comes to realize is the darkness in the media. There are references in the book to the O.J. Simpson trial and the attention that Princess Diana had from the paparazzi. This Mitch realizes is trivial information that the public follows and the more the public knows about the subject the more they want to know. There was no escaping the trial updates even as Mitch waited at the airport he was being kept up to date thanks to the televisions that were set up just for that purpose. I found the book to be very touching, I got the sense that the relationship between Morrie and Mitch had not diminished over time. Despite being apart for a long time they were able to reconnect and continue their friendship. They helped each other out; Mitch provided Morrie with one last project, made him feel that he was helping Mitch, and Morrie helped Mitch find himself. I learned many things from this book and it got me to see things from a different angle. Growing up I feel like I was told to work towards being successful, have a nice house, car, nice clothes, and along the way we forget what really matters. Family, love, and helping others will bring us happiness and a sense of fulfillment. I learned that I don’t have to follow what our culture tells us is acceptable or expected. I can take from it and make it my own, leave what does not work me. Bibliography Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. New York: Random House, 1997. Berman, Morris. Twilight of American Culture. New York: Norton & Company, 2000. Buckingham, David. Making of Citizens: Young People, News and Politics. New York: Routledge, 2000. Cappella, Joseph N. and Kathleen Hall Jamieson. Spiral of Cynicism The Press and The Public Good. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Kamalipour, Yahya R. and Kuldip R Rampal. Media, Sex, Violence, and Drugs in the Global Village. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001. Mannon, James M. The Performance Ethic in American Culture. Boulder: Westview Press, 1997.