Het kan allemaal veel beter: Morrie Schwartz, leraar tot de laatste snik

zondag 28 januari 2007

Morrie Schwartz, leraar tot de laatste snik

Morrie Schwartz, een Russisch-Joodse 'oude hippie' professor sociologie (1916-1995) gebruikt de laatste maanden van zijn leven -gesloopt door de spierziekte ALS, waar ook Stephin Hawkins aan lijdt- om college te geven aan zijn oud-leerling Mitch Albom. Dit gebeurde iedere dinsdag, waarbij Morrie er met de week er slechter aan toe was. Deze gesprekken waren voor ABC aanleiding om Morrie op zijn ziekbed te filmen, waardoor Morrie een hype werd in de VS. Albom heeft zijn gesprekken met Morrie geboekstaafd (zie mijn lijst). Een paar uitspraken van deze 'professor in het leven':

■ The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it.

■ So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

■ These were people so hungry for love that they were accepting substitutes. They were embracing material things and expecting sort of a hug back. But it never works. You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship... Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness. I can tell you, as I'm sitting here dying, when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feelings you are looking for, no matter how much of them you have.

■ People are only mean when they are threatened... and that's what our culture does. That's what our economy does. Even people who have jobs in our economy are threatened, because they are worried about losing them. And when you get threatened, you start looking out only for yourself. You start making money a god. It's all part of this culture.

■ All this emphasis on youth-I don't buy it... Listen, I know what a misery being young can be, so don't tell me it's great. All these kids who came to me with their struggles, their strife, their feelings of inadequacy, their sense that life was miserable, so bad they wanted to kill themselves…

■ Learn how to live, and you'll know how to die; learn how to die, and you'll learn how to live.

■ The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.

■ Death ends a life, not a relationship.

Labels: Mens-zijn