You’d think I’d have read it already. But I have not.
I began reading last night and was struck by the similarities between Morrie Schwartz and myself besides the specter of ALS. I too am a coach, a humanist and a religious mutt. We share a profound love for dance and a passion for books. My skin has also begun to hang from my bones like a chicken skin off a soup bone. I too have the experience of being a “lightening rod” of ideas! It’s almost a torrent of channelled insights, like a hyper active radio signal to the universal creative mind.

I am wholeheartedly aligned with Morrie’s stand; “Well, for one thing the culture that we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We are teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesnt work, don’t buy it. Create your own. Most people can’t do it. They’re more unhappy than me – even in my current condition.”

The clients I have and participants in my Master Plan program find divesting themselves of the trivial, as Mitch Albom does in the chapter “Taking Attendance” to be extremely valuable for their productivity and happiness. They then begin to attend to their personal spaces: Mental ,emotional, physical, social and spiritual space creating connections and relationships that foster wellbeing, as well as practices and scheduled times to manage these spaces and relationships powerfully. This is how I coach.

I keenly feel the suffering of others and cry when ever I see it. I have a standing date with “Extreme Homemakover” for my weekly “Good Cry”, it’s my guilty pleasure. I can more easily be moved to tears for others than myself, like Morrie, I have very little self pity. I completely identify with Mitch’s observation on page 63, that Morrie looks at life from a different place…a healthier place. A more sensible place. That mystical sense of clarity rings true for me…and I keep creating pathways for others to find it for themselves, WITHOUT having to look death in the face first!

Though from the story thus far I see that Morrie had this wisdom long before ALS had him…I was more like Mitch overwork, over altruistic, stretched and exhausted befor the wisdom of how to live smacked my upside the head! I’m sure I’ll have more about Morrie and Me as I read but this is a remarkable connection with a man I only know through Mr. Albom’s fanatastic “tuesdays with Morrie”.