Creative Analysis Paper: Tuesday’s with Morrie
Prepared for:
Julie Blaskivich
Prepared by:
Amanda Cunningham
0873718
Nursing—N1F04:PBL Mo103
November 19, 2008
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Creative Analysis Paper: Tuesdays with Morrie
Overview
Few times in our busy and demanding lives are we granted the opportunity to
really know life; to really know those around us; to really know ourselves. Mitch Albom
was given such a gift through the life and words of his dear professor, Morrie Schwartz.
As I read the typed words on the off-white paper these last few weeks I couldn’t help
but look deep inside my own life. Over the next few hundred words the impact of this
story, Tuesdays with Morrie, the knowledge that has been given to me through PBL,
and my own experiences, will hopefully become clear.
What’s it all about?
When one looks first at the title they may think that it is two hundred pages
about one person’s life and in fact death. However this is not the case. In effect this
story is about much more then one person’s life and decline to death; it is about Morrie,
yes and his impact and dealing with his own demise, but it’s also about Mitch. Mitch is
now a middle age man who is trying to leave a world of materialism and capitalism, for
a simple Tuesday with his old “coach”. It is about Morrie’s wife of forty-four years,
Charlotte, who Mitch described as “a private person, different from Morrie, but [he]
knew how much [Morrie] respected her” (Albom, 1997, p.148) as “[he] watched them
together now, when she would remind [Morrie] of his medication, or come in and stroke
his neck” (Albom, 1997, p.148), it is evident that the love is still very much around. It is
about the many friends, family members, and healthcare aids that come and go daily in
Morrie’s life. It’s about the way we touch each other through this expedition we’ve
embarked on. Isn’t this the same for most people? When, as a nurse, do we not treat the
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entire family, community, or society as a whole? When we help someone, their
continued well being does it not affect the outcome of someone else’s life? Saving a
mother, does it not save a child? If we were in fact to, “save one life, would we save the
world entire” (Spielberg, 1993)? Yes, yes, and yes, I do believe we would, I do believe I
could.
The Novel Imitating Lectures
Exploring the Mr. Shaw case study gave an insight to the elderly population. All of the
possible ailments—physical, emotional, social, and psychological, that could impose on
an elderly patient are quite endless. The way in which such issues affect the elderly
person, greatly depends on their stages of growth and development. The elderly patient
must learn to adjust to a decrease in physical strength and health, retirement, reduced
income, decreasing independence such as with Morrie having to have someone help him
to the commode and “when [he’s] done they have to wipe [him] (Albom,1997, p.162);
and death of others and self (Edelman, 2006, p.330). Eric Erickson’s final stage of
human development—the older adulthood psychosocial stage, is classified as ego
integrity versus despair (Edelman, 2006, p.341). By contemplating the journeys that
they have taken throughout their lives, the older adult decides whether or not they feel
satisfaction or regret from this remembrance. Morrie is in this stage, and it is clear that
he looks back with integrity over his life as he speaks to Mitch, “you have to find what’s
good and true and beautiful in you life as it is now” (Albom, 1997, p.120).
My Gift
In the field of nursing while we listen, bandage, draw blood, give relief from
chronic pain, we must remember that the one speaking or giving us their blood is in fact
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someone—they are someone right until the end. In David Kessler’s 1997 book, The
Needs of the Dying, on the very first page he maps out the needs of every living human
being:
The need to be treated as a living human being. The need to maintain a sense of
hopefulness, however changing its focus may be. The need to be cared for by
those who can maintain a sense of hopefulness, however changing this may be.
The need to die in peace and dignity.
Mitch cares for Morrie always with a sense of hopefulness and as though he is still a
living human being. As a nurse one could chose to work in a palliative care field.
Almost four years ago, I embarked on a palliative care journey of my own. I was living
with my grandparents, taking care of my grandfather daily. Each small detail became
my responsibility; from feeding, bathing, administering medications and pain relief,
taking him to doctor’s appointments, reading to, drinking tea with, listening to, and my
fondest memory of each day at 3 o’clock getting lost in the world of General Hospital.
He was my grandfather, he was my patient, but most of all he was my dear friend. I was
given the greatest gift, the gift of knowing my grandfather, and where I came from. I
suppose I am lucky like Mitch, only we didn’t have a specific day of visitation. As I
read the final pages of Mitch’s and Morrie’s story, I thought of my own story with my
grandfather, and my tears dripped to the pages below.
Endless Subtext
I realize that there are many subtexts to this story including: feeling sorry for
oneself, which in class one could argue that Mr. Shaw was experiencing some self-pity
for being “abandoned” by his wife; regrets, we all have them. In the Mr. Shaw case
study we talked about all the things that he did while he was working, did he regret not
spending that time with his wife? We discussed the importance of the family. Stephan
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and Sara spoke with their grandparents about how important spending time with our
close family is. Sex in the elderly was explored in class and while it was not a large area
of discussion in the story—it is definitely relevant because it shows both physical
stamina and intimacy. Culture is part of all topics because every culture views subtext
differently. Morrie discusses culture on the eleventh Tuesday with Mitch:
The problem 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
(Albom, 1997, p.156).
Death, fitting I have left this subtopic to the last. Reading this story as someone who has
had great personal losses in life, perhaps makes me see death and the underlying
whispers of this book differently then those who cannot comprehend the end of a life.
With each death we learn how to do it a little better; we become more experienced
and comfortable with an experience that is never in itself comforting. We learn
that the only thing that can sometimes comfort us or our loved ones is our
presence. There are no instructions; it’s a process of trial and error, learning as
you go. We have the need not to die alone. It’s much better for the dying and for
the living if we do it together (Kessler, 1997, p.175).
Obviously there are many more issues that people experience in each stage of their life;
nonetheless, I feel as though those conversed above give a broad overview of what
many or most people will have experience with at some point.
Personally
This book was important to me personally because two years my cousin passed
away from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which is also the horrific disease that
suffocates Morrie. Watching her body wither painfully, as she could no longer move,
with a feeding tube inserted and talking keyboard by her side was hard enough; but
knowing that she was still in there, inside her anatomical shell, made my heart ache. She
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was always a lively person, so full of life and love for her children, family, and friends.
After about a year from her first diagnosis, she was in a wheelchair, a feeding tube
nourished her and a computer spoke for her, until she could no longer move her fingers
to type. Seeing someone in such a state is almost unimaginable until you’re with them.
It was not a Tuesday when my cousin, Marge, passed away but I did think of her as a
neared the end of Morrie’s story and I continue to think of her still.
Not the End
Conclusions always seem so final, so ceasing. One thing that I learned from my
studies, my own experiences, and most recently Tuesdays with Morrie, is that our
lives—our love, is never really finished.
As long as we can love each other, and remember the feeling of love we had,
we can die without every 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 (Albom, 1997, p.174).
However, in concluding my paper, the application of Morrie and Mitch’s story is
relevant to my future profession as a healthcare advocate. By reading their stories, I
was able to compare the content to my own studying and experiences; leaving me with
a sense that I may indeed have something of what it takes to pursue nursing. Honestly
as I read Tuesdays with Morrie, I thought about those in my own life who have passed
and it gave me a flicker of hope and comfort that I was blessed to know them, to have
them in my life, and have had been shaped by their love.
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References
Albom, Mitch. (1997). Tuesdays with morrie. New York, NY: Anchor Books of
Random House. pp.120, 148, 162, 174.
Edelman, C,L., Mandle, C.L. (2006). Health promotion throughout the life span. St.
Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Mosby. p.p. 330, 341, 342.
Kessler, David. (1997). The needs of the dying. New York, NY: HarperCollins. p.p 1, 2,
175.
Perry, A., Potter, P. (2006). Canadian fundamentals of nursing, 3rd Ed. St. Louis,
Missouri: Elsevier Mosby.
Spielberg, S. (Director). (1993). Schindler’s List [Film]. Los Angeles, CA: Universal
Pictures.