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THE DAILY PROMPT: Daily Prompt — Worldly Encounters
The friendly, English-speaking extraterrestrial you run into outside your house is asking you to recommend the one book, movie, or song that explains what humans are all about. What do you pick?

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At first I figured there was only one clear choice for this prompt: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. You see the whole range of human emotions and strengths and weaknesses in her amazing book. But then this other little book came niggling into the back of my mind — Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom.

morrie_dancingWhile To Kill A Mockingbird spelled out for me the whole gamut of human misery, it almost made me feel hopeless that honest and noble people could overcome all the ails of society. But Tuesdays With Morrie made me believe the world can be changed one person at a time, and that the only person I can change is me. It helped me see who I want to be. I want to be just like Morrie.

morrie schwartz

 

 

Tuesdays is sports writer Mitch Albom’s reflection of his time spent with Morrie Schwartz, one of his favorite past professors at Brandeis University, during Morrie’s last days as Morrie battles ALS. Out of touch with him for a long time, Mitch reconnects with Morries when he sees an interview with Morrie on TV.

morrie_and_mitch1During Morrie’s last months Mitch visits him regularly to talk about such things as the world, feeling sorry for yourself, regrets, death, love, forgiveness, and saying goodbye. As Morrie struggled with his own feelings about dying from ALS, I struggled right along with him about my own mortality and came to admire and desperately want to emulate Morrie’s attitude about life.

So if I were giving this book to an alien, I’d say, “Here! THIS is how you want to be as a human being.” I know it’s how I want to be for sure.