For some reason this little story about the last days of a man dying of a terrible disease has hit the right buttons. It is the account of a 30-something yuppie who has sort of lost his way in life, but finding new insight about what is truly important from his former college professor. Every Tuesday the author travels to Morrie’s house to record his words of wisdom trying to discover where the author, and his generation, lost the path. The under girding philosophy that Morrie has to give is found in an oft’ repeated phrase, “Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live” (p.82).
Tuesdays is a story full of pathos, and perhaps this is its appeal. Many have lost loved ones who seemed to have a better handle on life than they. Maybe we should have taken the time to listen a little more to what they had to say. Maybe we are not too late. Unfortunately, Morrie’s insights are little more than a mixture of various religions, philosophies and common sense. Morrie’s perceptions are richer than most today, but Morrie is not a believer and he does not know the Bible. As a result he is left with the bankrupt wisdom of men – a poor substitute for the Christian who has at his disposal the Wisdom of God. For example, Morrie does not understand human nature, believing that all people are good, but our culture causes some to become mean (p.154). And he has the mistaken notion, so popular today, that we must learn to forgive ourselves (p.164).
But Morrie is not wrong in his assertion that when we have learned how to die we have learned how to live. No one has learned how to die, however, until they have come to know Christ. Morrie, sad to say, did not do this.