| CHAPTER EIGHT – The First Tuesday We Talk About The World |
| 40 |
48 |
When Albom arrived to meet Morrie, he found him sitting in his wheelchair by the kitchen table. Albom noticed that he was wearing an extremely baggy pair of sweatpants. What did Albom put this down to? |
When Albom met Morrie, he noticed that his former professor was wearing an extremely baggy pair of trackpants. He attributed how baggy they were to Morrie’s condition. As he was now wheelchair bound his legs were in an advanced state of atrophy. |
| 41 |
48 |
When Albom sat down with Morrie at the kitchen table, he presented his old professor with a small gift. What was this and why did Albom feel the need to contribute it? |
Albom presented Morrie with a small brown paper bag filled with some simple food stuffs. He felt the need to contribute this, despite knowing that there would be plenty of food at the house, because he was keen to try and help Morrie and yet felt entirely powerless to do so in any other, more meaningful way. |
| 42 |
49 |
As the pair sat and talked, Morrie confessed that he was soon going to need someone to ‘wipe his ass’, as he had foreseen whilst being interviewed by Koppelr. Morrie confessed that this fact bothered him as it was the ultimate sign of dependency and yet he told Albom that he was going to try and enjoy it. For what reason did he think that this might be possible? |
Morrie was honest with Albom and confessed that the thought of someone having to ‘wipe his ass’ was not a pleasant thought. Yet the old professor still hoped to enjoy the process if only he could persuade himself to do so after all, Morrie argued, it would be an opportunity to live like a baby one more time. |
| 43 |
50-51 |
As a reporter, Albom was used to covering a number of different events including interviewing grieving parents and attending funerals. Never once, the journalist admitted, had be ever felt truly emotional at any of these events and certainly was never brought to tears. Morrie, on the other hand, found himself crying when watching news broadcasts about the then ongoing war in Bosnia. For what reason did Morrie think that he was able to feel such empathy. |
Morrie accounted for his strong sense of empathy by attributing it to his disease. Since his condition became worse, and the old man really began to suffer, he told Albom that he now was able to relate other people’s pain in a more direct and immediate way. |
| 44 |
51-52 |
‘We are Tuesday people’. Why did Morrie mean by this? |
Albom felt that it was only fitting that they were meeting on a Tuesday because, whilst he had been Morrie’s student, the two had the majority of their contact on that day of the week. In response to this, Morrie had concluded that they were ‘Tuesday people’. |
| 45 |
52 |
As Albom began to ready himself to leave, Morrie told him about the most important thing which his disease had taught him. What was this? |
The most important thing which Morrie’s disease taught him was to ‘give out love and let love in’. Morrie told his former student that many people don’t feel comfortable letting love in to their lives because they don’t believe that they deserve it and yet love is ‘the only rational act’, the most important thing in life. |
| 46 |
53-54 |
As part of a class, many years earlier, Morrie had attempted to educate his students about the effect of silence on human relations by walking into the classroom and then sitting at the desk but remaining perfectly silent for the first fifteen minutes. At the end of the class, Morrie had taken Albom to one side and told him that he reminded him of someone. Who was this and why? |
At the end of the class, Morrie told his student that the young man reminded him of himself because he too had liked to keep things to himself when he was a young man. |
