TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE Narrative Essay Example

fulfill Jasmine's wish to have kids. He was so thoroughly engulfed in his life that he didn't know about Morris's illness at all. If it wasn't for the TV channel that he was skipping through one day, he would never have known Favorite quotes/ dialogues 1 . "Have I told you about the tension of opposites? ' he says.

The tension of opposites? "Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing but you are bound to do something else.

Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. " "A tension of opposites, like a pull on a rubber band. And most of us live somewhere in the middle.

" Sounds like a wrestling match, say. "A wrestling match. " He laughs. 'Yes, you could describe the life that way. " So which side wins, ask? "Which side wins? " He smiles at me, the crinkled eyes, the crooked teeth. Love wins.

Love always wins. " I believe what Memoir is trying to say is that life is filled with hurdles that we all have to overcome. Most Of us do not reside on the ends Of the rubber band but lie somewhere in the middle of it. I believe Memoir says this because none of us can fully realize the enormity of the decisions we have to make in life and the outcomes that result from them. For example, if want to be an artist when growing up but my parents have chosen to take science subjects for me to learn at school, then

there is the tension of opposites.

It is because even if want to do what love, my parents' dream for me will bind me to them but not to myself.

Being a doctor will never bring me the love and the passion that I could receive from being an artist because I will never be able to do and finish what I had started to be. Nothing in our lives IS exact, that is why they say life is unpredictable. God never planned out our entire lives without any interruptions or problems. Life gives us challenges and obstacles to face so that we can learn and earn the power of love and acceptance.

Even we don't know what we want best, no matter how much we convince ourselves that we do.

We know that we shouldn't take anything in our life for granted, but there are times we do it. Vass. Like the love from our parents, the need for money, power, status, etc. No one can strictly survive on nothing and no one can have everything in the world. That is why even though some have their every need met; it will never compare to the happiness and love that we can get from our loved ones. In the end, love is what binds us together.

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. " Memoir always seemed to know everything about the world. He knew how the world worked and the base it functioned on. He knew that the most important things in life such

as love, care, and respect for each other were all devalued in our society.

And he told this Mitch, that everyone can make their own culture, we all possess the strength to change the present culture and the state we live in instead of following it and its values blindly.

Memoir believed that most of us cared about things that didn't concern us, wasted our precious time following others' dreams when we all could change ours and create new ones as we grow. People take work and keep it close beside them as their companion when love and understanding should be the closest. In recent years, people are developing and adding to their self-made cultures which include juggling hours of work and striving to get to the top or getting a new watch that everyone else has or that new handbag.

Again the point, we all can create our own cultures, but the amount of happiness that we choose to put in it makes the most difference. "They seem half-asleep; even when they're busy doing things they think are important.

This is because they are chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning. " Memoir here talks about something our generation lacks the most. What Memoir says is very true about our culture and upbringing.

The way we follow our dreams and pave our paths are sometimes based on things that we want in life but not necessarily what we need. We Start to become the people

who we want to be but sometimes along the road, our lives and dreams are changed by the want to possess, to feel superior, and to have the freedom to do what we want and when we want it.

But few of us realize that what we rule need is so close that we don't even need to step out in the world to find it. Where it belongs is in our hearts. They need to realize this is the missing piece for us to be whole again.

And that piece is love. Most of us choose to distance it away from ourselves, finding it easier to replace it with temporal happiness like money and power. The true art of happiness is giving and if people realize this, only then can they find love and meaning in their lives.

"Sometimes you cannot believe what you see, you have to believe what you feel. And if you are ever going to have other people trust you, you must feel oh can trust them, too- even when you're in the dark. Even when you're falling. " Memoir knows we can't always trust our senses to move ahead in life.

Life gives us things that we are not prepared for and sometimes we have to go with our hearts and not our minds. We are not born with the knowledge of everything and everyone, which is why we learn and suffer from our decisions; these make us better human beings.

We learn to care and trust because our hearts tell us to because we know. There are times when we feel like falling into the hole which sucking us through but

the light that shines gives us the power to hold on and grasp at that beautiful thing called love. "Look, no matter where you live, the biggest defect we human beings have is our shortsightedness.

We don't see what we could be. We should be looking at our potential, stretching ourselves into everything we can become. " Memoir is right.

We, humans, are easily satisfied with very materialistic things. We don't stretch our limits to the sky but keep our feet on the ground and wonder as if we are lost in this world full of opportunities. We fail to see what we are made of, instead of trying to be people that we never were. We underestimate ourselves, neglect our dreams and chase after things that don't matter. All of us are capable of something greater than anyone has ever seen if only we put our hearts to it.

Most of us are only half of what we need to be and that is why we often fail.

We are not trying hard enough, being content leading our ignorant lives, moving on without a care in the world. The fifth Tuesday- We talk about family. Quotes: "Love each other or perish" "This is a part of what family is actually about, not just love, but letting others know there?s someone who is watching out for them. " There is no experience like having children.

That's all. There is no substitute for it. You cannot do it with a friend. You cannot do it with a lover.

You want the experience of having complete responsibility for another human being, and to learn how to love and bond most deeply,

then you should have children. " Memoir had brought up his sons lovingly and had showered them with affection. He had his family all around him and he felt protected and at peace. Protection- It is the most important thing you can receive from your family. Love is what brings us into this world and helps us to bond like no other. Love s what keeps us alive and keeps us in check.

Family is what gives this to us as soon as we are born and that is where we first learn how to love.

As Memoir said, there is no experience in having children. Having a child gives us the responsibility and a sense of belonging to be a part of something bigger. Having a family gives us a sense of purpose in life to do something different and how to learn from it in the Best Way. Having children is the Best Way to find love and to get it. Even when Memoir is dying, he knows that he will stay with his family till the end and they will never forget them.

I believe that bringing up a child requires a great amount of patience and being for your child in the hardest times is what makes a great parent.

Parents need to enclose the most important values in their children so that they can grow up to become loving and caring people. Even when we grow up and our friends move away and if we are ever feeling lonely, there is one thing we can count on to always be there for us- FAMILY. The thirteenth Tuesday -? they talk about the

perfect day This Tuesday Mitch asks Memoir what he would do if he had one day of being perfectly healthy. Mitch expected that he would go around the world; meet Ammos people who have one of the healthiest and the yummiest meals. Memoir gave Mitch an answer that he expected the least.

He said he would go for a walk in the morning, look at the flowers bloom and then he would have his friends over and chat about life, finally, when the night falls, he would go dancing with all his dance partners and then go to bed. If you were asked such a question, would you have responded in the same way? I wouldn't have. Would have named several places to visit and countless things to eat and buy. But what I found most inspiring by Morris's answer is that he kept his life simple, just the way he lived it every day.

Memoir found happiness in the smallest of things and he embraced them with full grace.

He knew the value of the smallest things in life, like flowers and just being with his close ones. "Love is different. Love is when you are as concerned about someone else's situation as you are about your own. " Before Mitch left, Memoir brought out the topic of Match's brother. Mitch hadn't met him in years and had tried contacting him from time to time but had failed to receive a reply.

It hurt Mitch that his brother didn't want to meet him; he was his brother after all. I Greer with Memoir when he said that love is not only a feeling for another person

but a show of immense care and affection, so much that you can't live without them.

It means that we care about someone more than we do for ourselves and we do it without a thought for ourselves. Memoir wants Mitch and everyone else to realize this. We can't have any pride or ego in our relationships.

Relationships are built with love and it takes time for them to return to how they were. It takes a lot more to build back what we had and he explained that to Mitch. You can't treat your relationship like a business negotiation to win. There is a lot involved like care, affection, importance, understanding, and love. People nowadays have a very different attitude towards love.

They believe materialistic things can completely replace the amount of time and love given to another person. But in fact, this is where they go wrong. Nothing can replace love and nothing else can bring you more happiness or joy. Nowadays people believe that love should only be given or felt if the other person is capable or worthy of it. Everyone has the power of love and the will to spread it. Love should never have a reason.

The sixth Tuesday- We talk about Emotions. Learn to detach". "Don't cling to things, because everything is impermanent. "But detachment doesn't mean you don't let the experience penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully.

That's how you can leave it. '" "When you learn how to die, you learn how to live. " What Memoir is trying to say is that if we hold back on our emotions, if we don't allow

ourselves to go all the way through them, then we will never be able to detach away from those emotions because we are too afraid. To completely detach away from our emotions, we have to feel, show and express them fully, so that we know our feelings enough to let go of them.

We have to stop being afraid of the pain, by the grief.

We like to feel strong and in control and don't want to experience the vulnerability love brings. But if we take the plunge and feel our emotions deeply, we can know what love is and we can know what pain is. Then we can let go because we know what we feel. The memoir was afraid to die like everyone is.

But he took control of his emotions; he started to feel them deeply. Fear, horror, and anxiety were what haunted him the most. But once he started to recognize them, their feel, their texture, e knew how it felt and he could step away from it. People nowadays like to step away from all these emotions. They think that it makes them weak and vulnerable and they live in fear that it may do something to their relationships.

But the best thing to do is to feel them as deeply as we can, it helps to feel, to know the emotion enough to be okay to let go of it. We shouldn't be afraid to show and feel how we do. We should always learn to detach and never hold on to any emotion for very long. Same for loneliness and fear, we should never let these emotions take over control but

instead eel it completely to be able to step away from it.

That is why Memoir wanted to die peacefully instead of in a coughing fit. He wanted to detach away from the horror of not being able to breathe and the fear of letting go and instead just pass away when the time comes. The Seventh Tuesday- We talk about the fear of aging. "Aging is not just decayed, you know. It's growth.

" "How can I be envious of where you are- when I've been there myself? "Mitch, I embrace aging;" Memoir explained that even though someone was doing all his basic tasks for him, he had started to enjoy the dependency because he felt like he was Ewing handled like a child again.

There was another reason for this. We all longed for our mothers to soak us with affection and cuddle and hold us and we never seemed to get enough of it. We all know how to be a child; it can be found deep within us. We all seemed to yearn for the unconditional love and care our mothers gave us and Memoir knew he had not gotten enough.

People are scared to grow old; it makes them feel weak and helpless. People nowadays take great pains in keeping themselves young and fit. They use make-up, surgery, medication, anything to prevent them from growing old.

But there are so many things in life that the youth don't understand, they have very little experience of life and are reckless and naive. The young are not wise and usually go after things that only give them temporal happiness.

As Memoir said, the youth have

very little understanding of life. He said that aging makes us wise and understanding. We no longer question the decisions we make in life because we know the outcomes that we had had and over the years, have learned from it. As we grow old, we understand that there is death is written in everyone's lives and we are left with no other hooch than to make peace with it.

Time is a journey that eventually puts a lid on our coffins.

When Mitch asked, why don't people ever say "l wish was sixty-five"? To which Memoir replied that people live unfulfilled and unsatisfied lives, which is why they are so unhappy with time. They have not lived their life to the fullest with their family around them and most importantly have not found meaning in their life. If there is a purpose in your life, you wouldn't want to go back and live it again because you have lived it the way you want to. You want to go forward, see more.

If the youth always deny they are going to get old, then when they do, it will be very hard for them to accept this. We shouldn't envy the young because we have been there and done everything we could at that stage.

If we have lived our youth with meaning and joy then we can live our old age life without regret. We have to accept who we are and revel in what we do to live our lives in peace. We should remember the good times and never fret over things we missed out on. I truly agree with Memoir when he

said that looking back on life makes you competitive but age should never be a competitive sue.