We're Tuesday people!

In class, we watched the movie "Tuesdays with Morrie." This is the story about a stereotypical businessman, Mitch Albom, whose life is taken over by his job. Mitch's Sociology teacher, Morrie Schwartz, contracts ALS and gradually dies throughout the course of the movie. After many Tuesday meetings with Morrie, Mitch learns from Morrie that "when you learn how to die, you learn how to live." Mitch puts his work and girlfriend on hold while he waits for Morrie to die. Morrie told Mitch to live his life while he's young because Mitch was lucky to have so much time and good health. Morrie gives Mitch the ultimate reality check. Obviously death tears people apart. Morrie reminds Mitch that "death ends life, not a relationship." Death could never break the strong relationship that people have with their loved ones. Although they are literally apart, people are always figuratively together in heart. You can't live your life waiting for people to die. When my nana's sister was dying, it totally drained everybody in my family because she was dying for over a year. I was not allowed to go visit after a certain point because my mom didn't want my sister or me to remember our aunt at the near-death state. Like Morrie, my Aunt Irene had high spirits until the day she died. My mom made meatballs from my aunt's recipe one day and brought it to her in the nursing home. My aunt was able to tell that my mom didn't add all of the lemons that the recipe called for. If you talked to her on the phone, you would never know that she was dying. Her memory was never impaired either. She could talk about the trip she took to Europe 20 years before she died. My family was not able to look past the good things that Aunt Irene was still able to contribute, and they were constantly worrying. The day she died, a weight was lifted off the family because remembering seemed to be a lot easier than constant caring. I don't think this is the way death is supposed to be. I believe people should spend more time living in the moment. Waiting around for death is too draining, and wishing the loved one was still living is also draining. Hopefully American culture will generate a new view of death to make it easier on people!