Morrie on "every age"

Last week I read a short paperback, Tuesdays with Morrie. It is a true story about a professor named Morrie Swartz and a former student, Mitch Albom.

Mitch reconnected with Morrie in the final months of the older man's life. Their relationship resulted in another "class" with the dying professor teaching lessons in how to live. Morrie taught from experience. There was no exam but there was a final paper. Tuesdays with Morrie is that thesis, turned in after Morrie's death from amytrophic lateral schlerosis (ALS), Lou Gehrig's disease.

One of my favourite lessons is their discussion on aging. Mitch asked the seventy-eight year-old if he was jealous of young people. Morrie answered:

"It is impossible for the old not to envy the young. But the issue is to accept who you are and revel in that."

He added, "The truth is, part of me is ever age. I'm a three-year-old, I'm a five-year-old, I'm a thirty-seven-year-old, I'm a fifty-year-old. I've been through all of them, and I know what it's like. I delight in being a child when it is appropriate to be a child. I delight in being a wise old man when it is appropriate to be a wise old man. Think of all I can be! I am every age, up to my own."

Thanks, Morrie. Lest we forget to be childlike, when appropriate.