Life summary from Morrie

I flipped over the book 'tuesday with Morrie' again and I am going to give a brief account here of what Morrie taught us about us. Something I want very much to share with you and you and you, who are too busy to read. Something which is, much more important than what we think is important.

But still you find yourself tied up with important thing and too busy to read this, let it be. I'm sorry about that.
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Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do; accept the past as past without denying it or discarding it; learning to forgive yourself and to forgive others; don't assume that it's too late to get involved.

Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted. A wrestling game. So which side wins? Love wins. Love always wins.

The way you get meaing into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. Levine said, "Love is the only rational act."

We are too involved in materialistic things, and they don't satisfy us. The loving relationships we have, the universe around us, we take these things for granted.

If you don't have the support and love and caring and concern that you get from a family, you don't have much at all. Love is so supremely important. As our great poet Auden said, "Love each other, or perish."

Same for loneliness: you let go, let the tears flow, feel it completely - but eventually be able to say, "All right, that was my moment with loneliness. I'm not afraid of feeling lonely, but now I'm going to put that loneliness aside and know that there other emotions in the world, and I'm going to experience them as well."

These were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitues. They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works. You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comredeship.

Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness. I can tell you, as I'm sitting here dying, when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feeling you're looking for, no matter how much of them you have.

You know what really gives you satisfaction? Offering others what you have to give.

My generation seemed to struggle with the commitment, as if it were an alligator from some murky swamp. I wondered if people my age were being more careful than those who came before us, or simply more selfish?

A loved one is so important. Friends are great, but friends are not going to be here on a night when you're coughing and cant' sleep and someone has to sit up all night with you, comfort you, try to be helpful.

Believe in the importance of marriage. I think marriage is a very important thing to do, and you're missing a hell of a lot if you don't try it.

As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had, we can die without ever really going away. All the love you created is still there. All the memories are still there. You live on, in the hearts of everyone you have touched and nurtured while you were here. Death ends a life, not a relationship.

In business people negotiate to win. They negotiate to gge what they want. Maybe you are too used to that. Love is different. Love is when you are as concerned about someone else's situation as you are about your own.

None of us can undo what we've done, or relive a life already recorded. But there is no such thing as "too late" in life.