Tuesday’s with Morrie: An Old Man, A Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson

Morrie loves to eat. He often talks with his mouth full, bits of food dribbling out. As a student, Albom found this a bit gross but also funny and charming. When he visits Morrie during his final illness, Albom always brings food. At first, they enjoy it together, but soon Morrie can no longer eat solid things. The food accumulates in the refrigerator, uneaten. Thereafter, Albom continues to bring food as a kind of symbolic offering, a way of trying to help in any way he can. 

Ted Koppel learns of Morrie’s unusual approach to death and interviews him on the ABC late-night TV news show Nightline. Albom, a former student of Morrie’s, happens upon the show while channel surfing and reconnects with his old mentor. The Nightline interview makes Morrie a minor celebrity, and Albom’s Tuesday visits often are interrupted by the ringing of the telephone. Ted arranges a second interview, and then a third and final talk with Morrie. Albom worries that Nightline is simply exploiting Morrie’s illness for sensational purposes. Morrie replies, “Maybe I’m using them, too. They help me get my message to millions of people” (149). 

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a motor neuron disease that causes victims to lose the ability to control their muscles. As the illness advances, patients become less mobile and, finally, barely able to move at all, and they finally suffocate. The disease is named for Lou Gehrig, whose record-setting baseball career was cut short by the ailment. ALS is always fatal, and Morrie is afflicted with it. He takes it as a challenge, continuing his teaching but informally and one-on-one. He reports his experiences with the illness on the news show Nightline and through the writings of his ex-college student Albom, whose book, Tuesdays with Morrie, makes the professor’s ideas and advice widely available. 

As their Tuesday conversations continue, Albom watches Morrie’s caretakers perform the many rituals of care that Morrie requires. These include massages, along with rapping his chest and back to help dislodge phlegm in his lungs. Albom, increasingly devoted to Morrie and searching for some way to help him during his final illness, learns from the attendants how to do some of these things for him. Albom knows Morrie loves being touched, and administering raps and massages become his way of caring for his old teacher and thanking him for all his kindnesses and contributions to Albom’s life. 

Morrie and Albom bond at Brandeis, where Morrie becomes Albom’s thesis advisor. The topic they choose is the evolution of football into a religious rite. This thesis is a success, and the work leads Albom toward a career in sports journalism. Decades later, Morrie asks Albom to write another thesis, this one a book that summarizes their Tuesday conversations. The book, Tuesdays with Morrie, becomes an international bestseller. Each time they have been together, then, the two men’s relationship centers around a writing project that advances Albom’s career and enables Morrie to contribute to others. The theses act as bookends to their friendship.