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The Curriculum, The subject was The Meaning of Life. It was taught from experience. No books were required,

yet many topics were covered, including love, work, community, family, aging, forgiveness, and, finally, death.

The last lecture was brief, only a few words.

 

人,無可避免,從出生一直到往生,總得經歷一連串從青澀,到熟成,到綻放,終止於凋零的不同階段;不同時間軸上,摸索學習、迷枉成長,情感掙扎、工作淬鍊、浮載浮沉....

是要到何時才能修得正果呢?! 人生課題,人人皆有不同的目標及答案。然後,驀然回首,最終的一切是自己汲汲所求的嗎?

 

不管,麻木不仁的生活著,兢兢業業的奮鬥著,可能不約而同…終會產生疑問這樣走對嗎?人生是一連串不停的選擇所組成的,選擇對了嗎? 那一個人需要多久,才能體悟出人生的方向可以更不一樣參加多場的心靈成長課程…..或療程?! 有幫助嗎?! 閱讀數十本的自我提升或宗教探索書籍?! 有用嗎?!

 

某日閒暇午後,看過電影最後14堂星期二的課,平淡中帶有啟發的情節,有些許那麼一點兒刺進我的心頭,便心想….

有想買這本頂頂大名的原著 ”Tuesdays With Morrie” 來細讀一下,看能否滋補一下久未充電的大腦皮質或心靈!^^

套句某同事長輩的名言: "再不動動腦,別到死了,腦都還是新的" ….!

 

如人生中能如筆者有這麼一位導師,幸運至極。如否,我至少有幸能分享到些許Morrie,在面對生命過程緩步走到終點的智慧。Morrie,罹換了ALS,俗稱漸凍人的罕見疾病,是種能思考卻不能動彈,必須在神智清醒下,面對自己肌肉一步步慢慢萎縮終至呼吸衰竭結束的漫長過程。這位瀕臨死亡的老教授,不忘盡力於人生最後的階段,用死亡這項人人無法避免的課題,以身為材教導他人。

 

生命是可以簡單的,簡單細微的心情改變,便能為自己於面對生命中任何事發生時帶來甚大的不同。

 

閱讀完這本書,如未能體悟出什麼,不像本人我到某些點時,還會衝動的含幾滴兒淚珠....沒關係....不風花雪月,至少也能學習到一些實用的英文用詞遣字!

筆者的用字難度適中,簡單中帶有哲理的敘事方式,淺顯易懂。如為延伸擴展自己的英文閱讀廣度,是一本極推薦的好選擇~~ (有心學好英文的同學,請記得購買英文版喔!!!)

 

擷取部份精彩文章內容,先賭為快……..

 

“When all this started, I asked myself, ‘Am I going to withdraw from the world, like most people do, or am I going to live?’ I decided I’m going to live-or at least try to live-the way I want, with dignity, with courage, with humor, with composure.

“There are some mornings when I cry and cry and mourn for myself. Some mornings, I’m so angry and bitter. But it doesn’t last too long. Then I get up and say, ‘I want to live…’

  “So far, I’ve been able to do it. Will I be able to continue? I don’t know. But I’m betting on myself that I will.”

 

  Morrie and Ted Koppel. They spoke about Morrie’s increasing dependency on other people. He already needed help eating and sitting and moving from place to place. What, Koppel asked, did Morrie dread the most about his show, insidious decay?

  Morrie paused. He asked if he could say this certain thing on television.

  Koppel said go ahead.

  Morrie looked straight into the eyes of the most famous interviewer in America. “Well, Ted, one day soon, someone’s gonna have to wipe my ass.”

 

  “Do you remember when I told Ted Koppel that pretty soon someone was gonna have to wipe my ass?” Morrie said.

  I laughed. You don’t forget a moment like that.

  “Well, I think that day is coming. That one bothers me.”

  Why?

  “Because it’s the ultimate sign of dependency. Someone wiping your bottom. But I’m working on it. I’m trying to enjoy the process.”

  Enjoy it?

  “Yes. After all, I get to be a baby one more time.”

  That’s a unique way of looking at it.

  “Well, I have to look at life uniquely now. Let’s face it. I can’t go shopping, I can’t take care of the bank accounts, I can’t take out the garbage. But I can sit here with my dwindling days and look at what I think is important in life. I have both the time-and the reason-to do that.” 

 

“Everyone knows they’re going to die, but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.”  “ To know you’re going to die, and to be prepared for it at any time. That’s better. That way you can actually be more involved in your life while you’re living.” “once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.”

 

“You know what the Buddhists say? Don’t cling to things, because everything is impermanent.”

  But wait, I said. Aren’t you always talking about experiencing life? All the good emotions, all the bad ones?

  “Yes.”

  Well, how can you do that if you’re detached?

  “Ah. You’re thinking, Mitch. But detachment doesn’t mean you don’t let the experience penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully. That’s how you are able to leave it.”

  I’m lost.

  “Take any emotion-love for a woman or grief for a loved one, or what I’m going through, fear and pain from a deadly illness. If you hold back on the emotions-if you don’t allow yourself to go all the way through them-you can never get to being detached, you’re too busy being afraid. You’re afraid of the pain, you’re afraid of the grief. You’re afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails.

“But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to drive in, all the way, over your head even, you experience them fully and completely. You know what pain is. You know what love is. You know what grief is. And only then can you say,’ All right. I have experienced that emotion. I recognize that emotion for a moment.’”

 

How we feel lonely, sometimes to the point of tears, but we don’t let those tears come because we are not supposed to cry. Or how we feel a surge of love for a partner but we don’t say anything because we’re frozen with the fear of what those words might do to the relationship. Morrie’s approach was exactly the opposite. Turn on the faucet. Wash yourself with the emotion. It won’t hurt you. It will only help. “All right, it’s just fear, I don’t have to let it control me. I see it for what it is.”

 

  Morrie lost his battle. Someone was now wiping his behind.

  “I began to enjoy my dependency. Now I enjoy when they turn me over on my side and rub cream on my behind so I don’t get sores. Or when they wipe my brow, or they massage my legs. I revel in it. I close my eyes and soak it up. And it seems very familiar to me.

  “It’s like going back to being a child again. Someone to bathe you. Someone to lift you. Someone to wipe you. We all know how to be a child. It’s inside all of us. For me, it’s just remembering how to enjoy it.

  “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.

 

  How do you keep from envying…

“What?”

Me?

He smiled.

“Mitch, it is impossible for the old not to envy the young. But the issue is to accept who you are and revel in that. This is your time to be in your thirties. I had my time to be in my thirties, and now is my time to be seventy-eight.

“The truth is, part of me is every 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’s appropriate to be a child. I delight in being a wise old man when it’s appropriate to be a wise old man. Think of all I can be! I am every age, up to my own. Do you understand?”

  I nodded.

  “How can I be envious of where you are-when I’ve been there myself?”

 

Th last class of my old professor’s life took place once a week, in his home, by a window in his study where he could watch a small hibiscus plant shed its pink flowers. The class met on Tuesdays. No books were required. The subject was the meaning of life. It was taught from experience.

The teaching goes on.

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