Prof. Goldsmith
HE 14
April 15th 2013
Term Report – Tuesdays with Morrie

The book Tuesdays with Morrie is about an elderly man named Morrie Schwartz diagnosed in his seventies with Lou Gehrig's disease. Morrie has always lived his life in his own fashion, taking his path less stressful. And continues to do so until his dying day. One of his former students sitting thousands of miles away in Michigan stumbled upon this episode of "Nightline" on the television by chance and most likely by fate. This student, Mitch Album, decides to pay a visit to his favorite tutor in quiet suburb of Boston. As he was a professor of Sociology for many years, Morrie begins again to educate Mitch Album, in, what he calls, his "final thesis." The old professor and the youthful student meet every Tuesday. As the disease progresses, Morrie shares his opinions on issues such as family, love, emotions, and aging. Although the cover of the book states "an old man, a young man, and life's greatest lesson," the book actually provides numerous life lessons.
Physically
Morrie’s physic is not the same and he can no longer eat the same solid food that he was use to eat from before. Also, now his diet is restricted to liquids only. Morrie’s talking has become a little slower and now, at times, it is hard to understand when he speaks. His words are no longer clear. Throughout the night Morrie has coughing fits, which keep him up. Even though it’s hard for him to sleep well, his wife, Charlotte, is always by his side to help him. Morrie’s breathing becomes unbearable and now he must breath through an oxygen tube that is placed in his nose. The feeling of the tube in his nose is very unpleasant and he dislikes it a lot. Morrie also has pain and he feels the pain mostly in his limbs as the disease takes over his body. The feeling of his hands is starting to fade very slowly. He feels tingles and numbness, the joints in his hands starts to hurt a lot and affects the way he communicates his emotions to others. He also starts to lose the feeling in his feet and his legs. He starts to limp and eventually starts dragging his feet. After a while he loses all of the feeling in his legs and he cannot move himself around like he used to. As time goes by, Morrie’s physical health is slowly decreasing. It is hard for him to move around now that he lost use of his legs, arms and hands. His speech becomes slur and he starts to feel weak all the time. Even breathing is now a challenge for him. Because of his coughing episodes that he will have from time to time, he has trouble resting through the night, which makes his next day even more troubled.
Mentally
Morrie could be considered mentally tough since he doesn’t let his illness get the best of him. The way he cope with his disease is that he accepted it and still want to live his life and make sure that he will live day by day to its fullest. Even though his physical health was getting worst he made sure to make decisions that would keep him on living until his last breath. He made the decision to start documenting his life since the illness took over his body. He wanted to live a happy and simple life. Morrie’s thoughts were always very smart. He was a man that really knows how to use his brain and thought about things no one else ever thinks of. Morrie’s thoughts were never closed-minded. He was very open to life and what life could offer. His thoughts were always positive and he wanted to surround himself with people that would not bring him down or remind him all the time that he was sick and dying. He wanted only good thoughts, energy and positive people around him during these times.
Morrie never had negative thoughts through his ordeal with his illness. Some mornings, he would wake up upset about begin sick. However he always found a way to rescue his mind back to positive thinking. Morrie had a goal. He wanted to live everyday like it was his last, he wanted to make sure that he stayed happy as much as he