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1c8af83
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She says everyone you lose here, you find again there. Our family is all together. Her. My parents.
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Mitch Albom |
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33991bd
|
So, have we solved the secret of happiness? "I believe so," he said. Are you going to tell me? "Yes. Ready?" Ready. "Be satisfied." That's it? "Be grateful." That's it? "For what you have. For the love you receive. And for what God has given you." That's it? He looked me in the eye. Then he sighed deeply. "That's it."
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Mitch Albom |
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81c4fb9
|
he didn't want to disrupt the boy's life any more than he already had.
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Mitch Albom |
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9ddb08b
|
received its first phone call from heaven, Tess Rafferty
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Mitch Albom |
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b4d8d37
|
Ted," he said, "when all this started, I asked myself, 'Am I going to withdraw from the world, like most people do, or am I going to live?" I decided I'm going to live-or at least try to live-the way I want, with dignity, with courage, with humor, with composure."
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end-of-life
dying
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Mitch Albom |
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122f381
|
Every society has its own problems," Morrie said, lifting his eyebrows, the closest he could come to a shrug. "The way to do it, I think, isn't to run away. You have to work at creating your own culture."
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Mitch Albom |
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64c742e
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However, this is too harmonious, grand, and overwhelming a universe to believe it all on accident.
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universe
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Mitch Albom |
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ab49732
|
forever around us, and no soul remembered is ever really gone.
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Mitch Albom |
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955d1d5
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Then, after showing the pill and some graphics, those same people appeared again, looking happier. The Reb and I watched in silence. After it ended, he asked, "Do you think those pills work?" Not like that, I said. "No," he agreed. "Not like that."
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silver-bullet
wonderpill
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Mitch Albom |
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c923c34
|
All parents damage their children. This was their life together. Neglect. Violence. Silence. And now, someplace beyond death, Eddie slumped against a stainless steel wall and dropped into a snowbank, stung again by the denial of a man whose love, almost inexplicably, he still coveted, a man ignoring him, even in heaven. His father. The damage done.
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Mitch Albom |
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8145aa0
|
Knowing heaven is what heals us on earth.
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Mitch Albom |
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93c6e17
|
There are two stories for every life; the one you live, and the one others tell.
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Mitch Albom |
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dfb56ce
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Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't. You take certain things for granted, even when you know you should never take anything for granted.
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Mitch Albom |
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969a09d
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Look and see, for everyone is coming home. Your sons are coming from distant lands; your little daughters will be carried on the hip. Your eyes will shine and your hearts will thrill with joy.
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Mitch Albom |
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22cc047
|
Strangers," the Blue Man said, "are just family yo have yet to come to know."
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inspirational-life
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Mitch Albom |
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854cb22
|
They don't know what they want in a partner. They don't know who they are themselves--so how can they know who they're marrying?
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Mitch Albom |
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19a2a6e
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And when hope is gone, time is punishment.
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Mitch Albom |
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93a7003
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He was so accustomed to being correct in his judgments. Had he been spared the smaller mistakes in life only to make the biggest one at the end?
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Mitch Albom |
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a908e26
|
As happens with all miracles, once life goes on, those who believe retell them with wonder. Those who do not, do not.
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Mitch Albom |
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ff4baac
|
People are only mean when they're threatened," he said later that day, "and that's what our culture does. That's what our economy does. Even people who have jobs in our economy are threatened, because they worry about losing them. And when you get threatened, you start looking out only for yourself. You start making money a god. It is all part of this culture." --
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Mitch Albom |
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719c6de
|
Take my condition. The things I am supposed to be embarrassed about now--not being able to walk, not being able to wipe my ass, waking up some mornings wanting to cry--there is nothing innately embarrassing or shaming about them. "It's the same for women not being thin enough, or men not being rich enough. It's just what our culture would have you believe. Don't believe it."
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Mitch Albom |
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d1809fe
|
The problem, Mitch, is that we don't believe we are as much alike as we are. Whites and blacks, Catholics and Protestants, men and women. If we saw each other as more alike, we might be very eager to join in one big human family in this world, and to care about that family the way we care about our own. "But believe me, when you are dying, you see it is true. We all have the same beginning--birth--and we all have the same end--death. So how..
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Mitch Albom |
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b31ee6f
|
Invest in the human family. Invest in people. Build a little community of those you love and who love you." He"
|
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Mitch Albom |
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ec5007f
|
Let me guess. You want to know why I tried to kill myself. You want to know how I survived. Why I disappeared. Where I've been all this time. But first, why I tried to kill myself, right? It's OK. People do. They measure themselves against me. It's like this line is drawn somewhere in the world and if you never cross it, you'll never consider throwing yourself off a building or swallowing a bottle of pills - but if you do, you might. People..
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Mitch Albom |
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dc1da57
|
Her dresses. Her shoes. A bottle of her perfume. You don't need much to remember someone, Francisco. Even one thing will do.
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Mitch Albom |
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ad3a404
|
But there still seemed to be no clear answers. Do you take care of others or take care of your "inner child"? Return to traditional values or reject tradition as useless? Seek success or seek simplicity? Just Say No or Just Do It?"
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Mitch Albom |
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8e9f5b0
|
But it's hard to explain, Mitch. Now that I'm suffering, I feel closer to people who suffer than I ever did before. The other night, on TV, I saw people in Bosnia running across the street, getting fired upon, killed, innocent victims... and I just started to cry. I feel their anguish as if it were my own. I don't know any of these people. But--how can I put this?--I'm almost... drawn to them.
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suffering
people
|
Mitch Albom |
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0491eca
|
Be compassionate," Morrie whispered. "And take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much better a place." He took a breath, then added his mantra: "Love each other or die."
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Mitch Albom |
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3b3154a
|
Animals not only make music, they hear it in unique fashion.
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Mitch Albom |
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0a0bda9
|
It's not just other people we need to forgive, Mitch," he finally whispered. We also need to forgive ourselves." Ourselves? "Yes. For all the things we didn't do. All the things we should have done. You can't get stuck on the regrets of what should have happened. That doesn't help you when you get to where I am. "I always wished I had done more with my work; I wished I had written more books. I used to beat myself up over it. Now I see that..
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|
|
Mitch Albom |
|
3feb4df
|
No life is a waste," the Blue Man said. "The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone."
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|
Mitch Albom |
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d9464e7
|
As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed at twenty-two, you'd always be as ignorant as you were at twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It's growth. It's more than the negative that you're going to die, it's also the positive that you understand you're going to die, and that you live a better life because of it.
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|
Mitch Albom |
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29c1d9a
|
Yes, I said, but if aging were so valuable, why do people always say, "Oh, if I were young again." You never hear people say, "I wish I were sixty-five." He smiled. "You know what that reflects? Unsatisfied lives. Unfulfilled lives. Lives that haven't found meaning. Because if you've found meaning in your life, you don't want to go back. You want to go forward. You want to see more, do more. You can't wait until sixty-five."
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|
Mitch Albom |
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e3c59c6
|
Learning to pay attention? How important could that be? I now know it is more important than almost everything they taught us in college.
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Mitch Albom |
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d5e3011
|
The truth is, part of me is every age. I'm a three-year-old, I'm a five-year-old, I'm a thirty-seven-year-old, I'm a fifty-year-old. I've been through all of them, and I know what it's like. I delight in being a child when it's appropriate to be a child. I delight in being a wise old man when it's appropriate to be a wise old man. Think of all I can be! I am every age, up to my own. Do you understand?" I nodded. "How can I be envious of whe..
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Mitch Albom |
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e66083c
|
Morrie was in a wheelchair full-time now, getting used to helpers lifting him like a heavy sack from the chair to the bed and the bed to the chair.
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|
ill
life
wheelchair
dignity
help
|
Mitch Albom |
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2e89a2d
|
Yet he refused to be depressed. Instead, Morrie had become a lightning rod of ideas.
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death
life
depress
ideas
will
|
Mitch Albom |
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2828ea0
|
They gave up days and weeks of their lives, addicted to someone else's drama
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|
|
Mitch Albom |
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66722f5
|
Que? Yo hacia girar los dedos de sus pies entre mis dedos, absorto en la tarea. -Mirame. Levante la vista y vi en sus ojos una mirada muy
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|
|
Mitch Albom |
|
df900ed
|
In light of this, my visits with Morrie felt like a cleansing rinse of human kindness. We talked about life and we talked about love. We talked about one of Morrie's favourite subjects, compassion and why our society had such a shortage of it.
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|
shortage
human
life
love
visit
society
talk
kind
|
Mitch Albom |
|
ea67b8a
|
I bought this the day before at a shopping mall. I didn't want to forget him. Maybe I didn't want him to forget me.
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|
present
parting
gift
remember
|
Mitch Albom |
|
b37efb6
|
Rock and roll, big band, the blues. He loved them all. He would close his eyes and with a blissful smile begin to move to his own sense of rhythm. It wasn't always pretty.
|
|
humour
funny
music
humor
rhythm
|
Mitch Albom |
|
89ca8f1
|
I asked Morrie if he felt sorry for himself. "Sometimes, in the mornings," he said. "That's when I mourn. I feel around my body, I move my fingers and my hands - whatever I can still move - and I mourn what I've lost. I mourn the slow, insidious way in which I'm dying. But then I stop mourning."
|
|
insidious
ill
sorry
slow
mourn
self
lost
|
Mitch Albom |
|
f946fc4
|
when all this started, I asked myself, 'Am I going to withdraw from the world, like most people do, or am I going to live?' I decided I'm going to live - or at least try to live - the way I want, with dignity, with courage, with humour, with composure.
|
|
withdraw
humour
courage
death
life
cope
dignity
decision
way-of-life
|
Mitch Albom |