Sometimes we read a book, put it down, and say, “Wow, that was really good!” I have read many books like that, and Tuesdays with Morrie was one of them, Morrie being a man at the edge of life’s fragile end.

Here is some of what I learned from one of Mitch Albom’s very popular books.

“Don’t cling to things because everything is impermanent.”

“The truth is, once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”

“Death ends a life, not a relationship.”

“Be compassionate,” Morrie whispered. “And take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much better a place.”

“As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed as ignorant as you were at twenty-two, you’d always be twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It’s growth. It’s more than the negative that you’re going to die, it’s the positive that you understand you’re going to die, and that you live a better life because of it.”

“I thought about all the people I knew who spent many of their waking hours feeling sorry for themselves. How useful it would be to put a daily limit on self-pity. Just a few tearful minutes, then on with the day.”

“The truth is, when our mothers held us, rocked us, stroked our heads -none of us ever got enough of that. We all yearn in some way to return to those days when we were completely taken care of – unconditional love, unconditional attention. Most of us didn’t get enough.”

“Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”

Happy Tuesday.