Tuesdays with Morrie

Current Song in Head: The Scientist, Coldplay

Just finished reading Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. May have took me quite a while to finish reading such as short book, but it was a really good read. For those of you not familiar with the book, you should grab a copy and read it. Basically, Morrie is the author's University professor and friend, and before he kicked the bucket, he taught some the author some of life greatest lessons.

It's funny how the way Morrie sees life and the world is pretty similar to how I perceive they should be. Case in point: the material possessions that we have are of no importance to us eventually. Maybe its because I'm raised in a pretty well to do family, I have never really treasured the importance of making as much money as one possibly can. To me my basic believe is that a person should be happy with what he is doing and comfortable with what he is doing. And besides that, he should not hurt others in the process of achieving something. This is another ideal that I seem to share with Morrie. Haha... Maybe someone should make me a professor.

But the most interesting common ideal that I share with dear old Morrie is best illustrated in the excerpt below...

In 1979, a basketball game in the Brandeis gym, The team is doing well, and the student section began a chant, "We're number one! We're number one!". Morrie is sitting nearby. He is puzzled by the cheer. At one point, in the midst of "We're number one!", he rises and yells, "What's wrong with number two?" The students looked at him. They stop chanting. He sits down, smiling and triumphant.

Yep, whats wrong with not being number 1? Whats wrong with being number 2? Maybe its because of this mentality that I'm underachieving most of my life. But heck, I'm comfortable with it, and I'm still happy. So I'll stick to being number 2 or 3 or whatever. Kind of feel that society's urge for us to be the best in whatever we do makes the majority of us live a miserable life. Granted, there are some that would actually attain the goal of being the best in what they do, but this percentage is so small. Consequently, this means that the majority of us who have not attained the seemingly impossible goal of being number 1 would be unhappy, just because we did not achieve what we set out to do.

So everyone, why not give yourself a break, make yourself happy, set yourself a target you can achieve. Preferbly a target that is low. That way you'll also be happy when you're in the process of setting the goal. Hehe... Some kind of inspiration book Tuesdays with Morrie was. But I'm not complaining, I certainly loved it. Would have loved to meet Morrie too.

P.S.: My little princess warned me against reading this book. Says that its not meant for me. I can see why after finishing it. It just re-affirms my 'bad' principles in life. Haha... It feels good to know that there are people of 'higher' learning who holds the same beliefs as me.

Interesting Fact of the Day: Mitch Albom was my brother's professor at Cambridge. Wow!

Hmmm... I'm wondering, did I take Morrie's lessons the wrong way? Haha... But in order to make myself happy, I'll assume that I didn't!