Morrie Schwartz

The definition of a hero is someone who inspires other towards greatness. Morrie Schwartz was a victim of Lou Gehrig disease; a cruel and unforgiving disease that melts you like a candle, but from the bottom up. He was a wise, smart, forgiving sociology teacher as Brandeis University. He left a trail of love and happiness wherever he went and inspired people to be the best they can be.

Morrie Schwartz was born in Manhattan on December 20th, 1916, and died on November 4, 1995 in Detroit. He is a role model to many and and inspiration to all. He taught that the true way to be happy was to give to your community, give out love willingly, and take in all the love you can get. He quickly became a celebrity after a showing on Nightline, a television show. This showing caught his favorite student's eye, and brought back author and journalist Mitch Albom, who soon after seeing the show, visited Morrie every Tuesday. After seeing Morrie and hearing about Morrie's death, he wrote the book Tuesdays With Morrie. Later on a movie, named Tuesdays with Morrie, was created about this book. Some of Morrie's Favorite activities included Dancing, Swimming, Chatting with friends, and teaching.

Morrie's childhood in Manhattan was a very sad one. His father was a Russian man, unable to read English. His father worked in a fur factory. Morrie's father took him in there once. Morrie hated it, soon after he found out he had asthma. Morrie's mother died when he was the age of eight by a disease. Until the day he died, Morrie mourned for his mother. Then his father re-married to a woman named Eva. She was a kind woman who Morrie didn't accept at first, but he slowly came to love the kind Russian immigrant who woke him every morning with her beautiful voice. One night, his father was attacked by some muggers. He threw down his wallet and ran. He ran all the way to his doorstep where he had a heart attack and died quickly. Morrie was then called to the morgue to identify his father's body. He shed no tears for the man he thought could accept no love, and give no love.

Throughout his teachings on Tuesdays with Mitch Albom, Morrie Schwartz talked about about love, marriage, money, culture, fear, death, the world, feeling sorry for yourself, regrets, emotions, The fear of aging, love going on, forgiveness, and how to say goodbye. Some of his best, and most memorable quotes are "So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they think they are doing important things. This is because they are chasing the wrong things." and "Learn how to live and you'll know how to die; learn how to die, and you'll know how to live." Especially "It's not too late to... ask yourself if you are really the person you want to be, and if not, who do you want to be? Throughout all of these quotes and sayings, you'll see kindness, being caring, and wisdom packed into all these sayings. Along with these sayings is love for all. Morrie also said "There are some people who don't like to be touched, and i always saw this as strange. From birth, we have lived to be touched, cradled, held, and stroked." This is my favorite quote because it's all so true, Why do some people just hate being touched?

         

Morrie was a kind, caring, loving man who was so full of wisdom for others to feed off of to make the world a very kind, beautiful place full of people who care about each other, about nature, about everything going on, about love. He believed that when you learn to live, you learn how to die, and when you learn how to die, you learn how to live. Morrie Schwartz was my hero for everything he did throughout his life.