A More Meaningful Life

One of Life's Blissful Moments

Lori, April 2010

Castaway Cay

 

Proverbs 13:14 NIV

"The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death."

My seniors and I are reading Tuesdays With Morrie, by Mitch Albom, which chronicles the decline in health and death from ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) of his former Brandeis University professor, Morrie Schwartz.

My 17 and 18-year old students tell me how much they enjoy the book, and I have let them read at their own speed, although in the classroom I keep them together for the sake of discussion.

In the book, Morrie and Mitch talk about many of life's important issues such as aging, regrets, love, relationships, death, and living a more meaningful life.

I am always surprised that Morrie, a 78-year old man, can speak to the hearts of my seniors, but he always does.  Thanks to YouTube, we watch videos of Morrie, before he died, being interviewed by Ted Koppel on Nightline. 

Today we watched a video where Morrie cried over the death of his mother as he answered a letter from a school teacher in Pennsylvania who had a support group for students who had lost at least one parent.

She had written to Morrie for words of advice, but all he could tell her was he wished there had been a place like that for him when he was 8 years old and had lost his mother. He told the teacher she was doing a great thing looking after the children.

One year, when I taught this book, a student told my class she cried everyday she got up before school started because she missed her mother so much.  We all listened to her as she expressed her grief. Morrie's story allows the students to open up like that.

Finally today, to help my students understand better what Morrie was going through with his degenerative muscle disorder, I created blindfolds out of bulletin board border paper, and held them in place with masking tape.

Prior to blindfolding the students, I asked them to write their names on the front of a piece of paper. Then I blindfolded them and told them to use the opposite hand they usually write with to spell out their names.

They laughed and groaned, but they all tried it.  Some did better than others, but they struggled. One boy wasn't sure he had pencil lead in his pencil, and even though he kept touching the tip of his pencil, he still couldn't tell. So he gave up, felt for his ink pen, and used that instead.

They weren't willing to admit they felt completely handicapped, but I could tell they were out of their "comfort zone".

For a few minutes, I encouraged them to walk in someone else's shoes.

For my part, if the students learn to empathize with someone going through severe physical ailments, then reading this book will be worth it.
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Lord, help my students learn lessons about life as they discuss serious issues contained in this book.