The most important thing in life is to give out love and to let it come in. What does this mean? Do you agree or disagree? Why?

Mitch Albom’s memoir of his relationship with a very special professor, Morrie Schwartz, emphasizes the lessons the latter conveyed to the one-time student. Mitch met Morrie when he was a student, and Morrie was one of his professors, his “favorite professor,” in fact. The two had gone their separate ways after Mitch graduated from Brandeis University, but the two reconnect later in life after Mitch sees Morrie on television and contacts him, learning of Morrie’s struggle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a debilitating, fatal neurological disorder. Mitch’s decision to reconnect with Morrie leads to the most important lesson he will carry with him in his own life. That lesson is repeated throughout Tuesdays With Morrie and can be summarized as a warning against trying to find personal fulfillment in material things rather than in personal relationships. Early in his memoir, Albom, amid the fawning idolization over celebrity athletes and their famous paramours, recalls one such instance in which he is compelled to reflect on the true meaning of values and of happiness:

I thought of something else Morrie had told me: 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.

Later, Albom again recalls this important advice during one of his regular Tuesday sessions with Morrie in the latter’s office at the university:

Each time we talk, he listens to me ramble, then he tries to pass on some sort of life lesson. He warns me that money is not the most important thing, contrary to the popular view on campus. He tells me I need to be "fully human." He speaks of the alienation of youth and the need for "connectedness" with the society around me.

Reflecting again on Morrie’s emphasis on prioritizing human relations over material gain, Albom relates one of his conversations with the aging, dying professor:

“Mitch, you asked about caring for people I don’t even know. But can I tell you the thing I’m learning most with this disease?” "What’s that?" “The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love and to let it come in.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “Let it come in. We think we don’t deserve love, we think if we let it in we’ll become too soft. But a wise man named Levine said it right. He said, 'Love is the only rational act.’”

Tuesdays With Morrie is an insightful, touching account of the influence of a revered professor on a student initially reluctant to take to heart the mentor’s lessons. Writing the memoir was a therapeutic exercise for Albom, an opportunity to absorb himself finally in the humanity conveyed by the dying professor. When Morrie returns from the funeral of a colleague, he is depressed by the sentiments conveyed by those eulogizing the deceased. His depression is not over the sentiments, but in the fact that they are conveyed only after an individual passes away. Morrie is intent on living the values expressed on behalf of the dead while he is still alive, and those values revolve around the importance of human interactions. Whether one agrees with Morrie Schwartz's philosophy of life is up to the individual. It is difficult, however, to argue against the sentiments expressed in Albom's book.