Love & Marriage
Auden's famous poem quote that Morrie lives by and repeats to Mitch throughout his final weeks.
What is "Love each other or perish"?
Morrie explicitly tells Mitch that power and money are absolutely not a substitute for this gentle human emotion.
What is tenderness?
Morrie explains that people who fear aging do so because they feel their lives have lacked this core achievement.
What is meaning (or fulfillment)?
The three-word phrase Morrie wants carved into his tombstone to summarize his life’s purpose.
What is "A Teacher to the Last"?
Fittingly, Morrie's actual funeral takes place on this specific day of the week.
What is Tuesday?
Morrie states that if the dominant culture tells you that you are not enough, you must reject it and do this instead.
What is "Create your own culture"?
According to Morrie, people obsessively chase material things because they are lacking this in their lives.
What is love (or satisfaction/meaning)?
When talking about mistakes, Morrie stresses that it is vital to forgive others, but it is just as vital to forgive this person.
What is yourself?
In Morrie’s story about the little wave in the ocean, the wave is afraid of crashing until another wave reminds him he is actually part of this.
What is the ocean?
Throughout these chapters, Mitch worries about his estranged brother named Peter, who is dealing with this illness in Europe.
What is cancer?
When Mitch brings his wife Janine to visit, Morrie surprises her by doing this despite his failing lungs.
What is singing to her?
Morrie tracks this source of media daily to stay connected to global suffering, even though he is dying.
What are newspapers / the news?
The name of Morrie's old friend who sculpted a bust of him, whom Morrie bitterly regretted never reconciling with before his death.
Who is Norman?
When asked about his "perfect day," Morrie describes doing incredibly ordinary activities, proving that happiness is found in these types of things.
What are relationships and simple pleasures?
Morrie tells Mitch that his ultimate goal as a friend is to eventually make Mitch do this during their visits, which Mitch usually resists.
What is cry?
Morrie emphasizes that a couple must share a common set of these in order to have a successful, lasting marriage.
What are values (or a common value system)?
This major event—a strike at Mitch's workplace—unintentionally gave Mitch the free time to visit Morrie every single week.
What is the newspaper strike (at the Detroit Free Press)?
Morrie accepts his physical dependency by comparing it to the pure comfort felt during this early stage of human life.
What is infancy (or being a baby/child)?
To cope with terrifying moments like coughing fits, Morrie practices this mental technique of feeling an emotion completely and then stepping back from it.
What is detachment?
Morrie tells Mitch that he wants Mitch to visit his grave after he passes away, and promises to do this in return.
What is listen?
Morrie says that love goes on after death because death ends a life, but it doesn't end this.
What is a relationship?
Morrie notes that our commercialized society feeds people a false diet of things they don't actually need, leading to an endless cycle of this feeling.
What is emptiness (or dissatisfaction)?
Rather than giving in to it all day, Morrie handles this negative emotion by scheduling a few minutes for it every morning before detaching.
What is self-pity (or mourning/crying)?
Morrie’s metaphor for ALS describes the disease as a lit one of these, melting a person from the inside out until only a wick remains.
What is a candle?
During their final Tuesday goodbye, Mitch does this for the first time, signaling that Morrie’s final lesson on emotional vulnerability was complete.
What is cry (or weep)?