Tuesdays With Morrie Chapter 13 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
"Do what the Buddhists do. Every day, have a little bird on your shoulder that asks, 'Is today the day? Am I ready? Am I doing all I need to do? Am I being the person I want to be?'" (13.9)
Morrie draws from Buddhism here, and the idea is to work on perfecting yourself so that when the time comes, we're ready to go. The people we're accountable to are ourselves.
Quote 2
"Mitch," he said, laughing along, "even I don't know what 'spiritual development' really means. But I do know we're deficient in some way. We are too involved in materialistic things, and they don't satisfy us." (13.40)
Morrie is admitting that spiritual stuff is a lot to figure out, even in his old age. But he does know that it's something that is the opposite of materialism. There's definitely something else out there that we need, because material things just don't cut it.
Quote 3
So we kid ourselves about death, I said.
"Yes. But there's a better approach. To know you're going to die, and to be prepared for it at any time. That's better. That way you can actually be more involved in your life while you're living." (13.7-8)
Here's the idea of life and death again: If you understand one, you understand the other. Sadly, the way that it seems to work is backward from what people expect. Only when we understand what it means to die can we take advantage of our humanity and learn how to live.
Quote 4
"Why not? Like I said, no one really believes they're going to die."
But everyone knows someone who has died, I said. Why is it so hard to think about dying?
"Because," Morrie continued, "most of us all walk around as if we're sleepwalking. We really don't experience the world fully, because we're half asleep, doing things we automatically thing we have to do." (13.21-23)
How ironic is it that although we exist as bundles of endless possibility, we walk around "half asleep"? Our experience is limited because we're lazy, doing only the things we have to do, instead of things that we could do.
Quote 5
"Yes. I look out that window every day. I notice the change in the trees, how strong the wind is blowing. It's as if I can see time actually passing through that windowpane. Because I know my time is almost done, I am drawn to nature like I'm seeing it for the first time." (13.43)
Because he's dying, Morrie can slow down and participate in the world around him. Nature is a beauty that is sometimes unappreciated because we're so used to it. If we try to make ourselves aware like Morrie, though, we can feel the wind almost for the first time.