It’s another Tuesday. What better time is there than to share some of my reflections from the book “Tuesdays with Morrie: an old man, a young man and life’s greatest lesson”. Though an assignment from the “nature of human beings” class, immediately I picked the book, I knew this wasn’t a book to glide over. I needed soak in to it. So I decided to bring it along on my ten hour journey to the UK and it sure kept me company. It is indeed a compelling story and one relatable as well.
A couple of points I would be echoing here, is about what gives life meaning. The interesting thing is that this question can easily have a thousand and one answers, but truth is Love is Life. I have come to realize that without love, life by itself is empty. Loving and being loved is the very essence of our being. It is what keeps us afloat; it also is what gives us hope. Devoid of love, humans are nothing but a class of living things. Actually we are perhaps worse of, because by our very design, we are meant to love and receive love. The simpler we make life by learning to love, the easier it is on everyone.
Yet, it is interesting how we all chase drama. I liken it to the fundamentals of the analysis of business problems (ABP) class. The importance of correctly identifying the problem or else, what you get to solve are the symptoms rather than the problem. We spend life searching for irrelevances that we actually forget to live. Learning to live is learning to give and receive love. It is learning to live in the present, knowing fully well that life is temporal because when one truly realize this, every moment becomes more bearable; be it happy or sad times. You learn to close your eyes and detach. Detach from pains, pleasures, joys, and misery. We just enjoy every moment of our being, and move on. Love is all we need.
Another enlightening moment for me from the read, is that learning to die is learning to live. A realization of how unprepared we mostly are for the inevitable. One of the topics taught in elementary science, is the characteristics of living things. Humans are living and so we die. However, we did learn also that we are higher beings. And so I ask, what makes us higher? The basic traits of humans are common with other living creatures as well. And you may argue that being higher is in our complex makeup, intelligence or creative abilities. Truth is all that has been debunked. There are quite a number of highly intelligent creatures out there; creating things that suits their existence as well. However, I still consider the ability to love, as one of man’s greatest differentiator, which unfortunately is fast eroding. Time and culture has so much happened to us that we are fast forgetting to love. Only giving love as a secondary consideration than it being primary.
Recently I was attending a program, aimed at supporting women, helping them to build their careers and break glass ceilings in a male dominated work environment. The speaker, in trying to motivate women to compete with the other gender, said “outsource what you can”. She went on to mention how a woman outsourced love to her child, to a care giver, so she could build a career. While I respect the views of others, it sounded like the most absurd thing I have heard in years. The intent of outsourcing giving love to the little child was premised on catching up with bonding, later when the child is grown.
However like the writer of the book said, “Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live”. I found this very profound. Death is inevitable, yet it is that one thing we never truly prepare for. We go on living like we have life wrapped around our little finger. We do not want to talk about it and so while we make wedding plans, birthday plans, career development plans, scarcely do we plan for death. What comes next after we die. Indeed, some people make plans on how they want their estate shared after their death. But is that all there is to plan for death? Do we plan for how long we want to stay in the memories of loved ones?. What plans do we make, to live on even in death? And even more importantly, what kind of memories do we want to be?. Not until we consciously reflect on these questions daily, can we really begin to focus on the important things of life. Not until then can we truly live. Fully realizing the needless energy we throw on social media and getting engrossed with the drama in the life of others. We realize the folly in devoting too much time chasing luxuries, sacrificing relationships on the altar of career building and keeping grudges. We are able to connect with people, with nature and the things that matter. Only then do we really enjoy breathing. Impacting lives positively, listening to others and just willing to share love, which really, is all we have got. We enjoy the immeasurable joy that comes with putting smiles on the faces of others and helping others grow. If only we could live as though this breath is the last, such great peace there would be.
