Morrie's Aphorisms

"'Dying...is the only thing to be sad over... Living unhappily is something else. '"

Tuesday's with Morrie by Mitch Albom

             The quote said by Morrie in Tuesday's with Morrie, "Dying...is the only thing to be sad over... Living unhappily is something else.'" can have a few meanings to it. One way I see the quote is that dying is just one sad moment. Living unhappily is many throughout your whole life. Living unhappily takes time away from your life, and is just wasting it. Everyone will eventually die, and many people can't accept that. They think they will live forever. Since in reality we will not live forever, Morrie thinks that we should not spend our short life living unhappily. Morrie didn't spend the rest of his life being upset about his illness all the time. Instead, Morrie focused on the important things in his life, and appreciated everything he had. Morrie is trying to tell us to not spend our lives being upset, because we have a short life. We shouldn't be sad over things that won't matter in the future.

            I can relate Morrie's aphorism to a personal expirience of mine. After reading Tusdays with Morrie I have realized that I have been worrying and stressing over things I shouldn't have been worrying about. I have learned from Mitch's book, that we should focus on the important things in life, because we have a short life. Looking back at all the things I have been down about, I have realized that most of the situations don't matter anymore. I don't want to waste my life being unhappy with whatever is going on. All of the moments I have been upset about have built up, and has taken away a lot of time. If I am unhappy about something I should get over with it, like Morrie did, before it gets worse.

            I do agree with the aphorism, "'Dying...is the only thing to be sad over... Living unhappily is something else.'" by Morrie Schwartz. I agree on this aphorism, because I think everyone can relate to this quote. Sadness is an emotion everyone will feel at one point in their life. Sometimes we spend too much time being upset about something, when we could be doing something actually worth our time. On page 40 in Tuesday's with Morrie, Morrie says, "'You take certain things for granted even when you know you should never take anything for granted.'" When people are sad, because of their life it causes them to waste all of their precious time, instead of enjoying the little things in life they could have missed from being sad. Every moment is special, and when people are down it takes time away from that. We think we have all the time in the world, when really we should enjoy all the little things in life, before it is all gone. 

My aphorism: It's good to follow your role model's footsteps, but it's better to take some of your own.