Schlagwortarchiv für: Mitch Albom

What if you had one day per­fect­ly healt­hy, I asked? What would you do?
„Twen­ty-four hours?“
Twen­ty-four hours.
„Let’s see… I’d get up in the mor­ning, do my exer­ci­s­es, have a love­ly break­fast of sweet rolls and tea, go for a swim, then have my fri­ends come over for a nice lunch. I’d have them come one or two at a time so we could talk about their fami­lies, their issues, talk about how much we mean to each other.
„Then I’d like to go for a walk, in a gar­den with some trees, watch their colors, watch the birds, take in the natu­re that I haven’t seen in so long now.
„In the evening, we’d all go tog­e­ther to a restau­rant with some gre­at pas­ta, may­be some duck – I love duck – and then we’d dance the rest of the night. I’d dance with all the won­derful dance part­ners out the­re, until I was exhaus­ted. And then I’d go home and have a deep, won­derful sleep.“
That’s it?
„That’s it.“
It was so simp­le. So avera­ge. I was actual­ly a litt­le dis­ap­poin­ted. I figu­red he’d fly to Ita­ly or have lunch with the Pre­si­dent or romp on the seashore or try every exo­tic thing he could think of. After all the­se months, lying the­re, unable to move a leg or a foot – how could he find per­fec­tion in such an avera­ge day?
Then I rea­li­zed this was the who­le point.
(Mitch Albom – Tues­days with Morrie)

Here was a man who, if he wan­ted, could spend every waking moment in self-pity, fee­ling his body for decay, coun­ting his breaths. So many peo­p­le with far smal­ler pro­blems are so self-absor­bed, their eyes gla­ze over if you speak for more than thir­ty seconds. They alre­a­dy have some­thing else in mind – a fri­end to call, a fax to send, a lover they’­re day­d­re­a­ming about. They only snap back to full atten­ti­on when you finish tal­king, at which point they say „Uh-huh“ or „Yeah, real­ly“ and fake their way back to the moment. (…) We are gre­at at small talk: „What do you do?“ „Whe­re do you live?“ But real­ly lis­tening to someone – wit­hout try­ing to sell them some­thing, pick them up, recruit them, or get some kind of sta­tus in return – how often do we get this any­mo­re? I belie­ve many visi­tors in the last few months of Morrie’s life were drawn not becau­se of the atten­ti­on they wan­ted to pay to him but becau­se of the atten­ti­on he paid to them. Despi­te his per­so­nal pain and decay, this litt­le old man lis­ten­ed the way they always wan­ted someone to listen.
(Mitch Albom – Tues­days with Morrie)