Thoughtful and Unforgettable
This book is easy to read and avoids the usual preachiness that I find in "inspirational" type books. Those two reasons alone would have been enough for me to give this book a positive review. But beyond the general aesthetic reasons, I found myself thinking about things in this book during normal, every day chores. I would wake up the next morning, to remember that I had been dreaming about a particular thought that Morrie had discussed with Mitch. A book that can have this type of lasting effect on me is something special in my opinion.

Morrie talked with Mitch about a lot of things that I know are troubling to me. Dying is something that I've always been afraid of. It's an unknown entity in which I am entirely powerless over. This combined with my confusion of the entire God/Religion thing is enough to keep me wondering. Mitch captured Morrie's thoughts perfectly and most importantly, succinctly. Everybody knows we're going to die, but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently. Although Morrie was born a Jew, seldom did religion or the God thing come into conversation. Instead, he said things that just seemed to ring true for me. Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live. This particular quote sounded good but it wasn't until I heard Morrie's logic that the little bell went off in my head. Accepting that today is my last day of life, might make me less "ambitious," make me less caring about things that are pretty superficial like money, labels, and materialistic items. I thought about all of the stuff I would cut out of my life if I only had that one precious day left.

Each chapter (each visit) had a similar look and feel to them with Morrie sharing words of wisdom that seemed practical and common sense like. Both Mitch and I would take the time to reflect on his words, not because it was required but the thoughts invaded our consciousness, seeming to uncover many of those things that we wanted to bury for one purpose or another.

If you know anything about ALS, then you know that it is terminal and that Morrie dies. I wasn't expecting to be so sucked in by Morrie. I wasn't expecting the sadness I experienced during Mitch's last visit with Morrie. I think I was sad about how often we don't understand things until it's too late. Such is folly of human experience, of life.

This book is recommended for those who are on a soul-searching journey about (dare I say?) the meaning of life. It will definitely raise important questions. Another oddly compelling book I recently purchased off Amazon -- that I need to recommend is: "The Losers Club: Complete Restored Edition" by Richard Perez, a very entertaining soulful book, funny and sad -- another book I can't stop thinking about -- about the search of love and meaning in life.

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