![\"Mitch](\"http:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Christina-Ryan-Claypool-with-Mitch-Albom-300x225.jpg\")
Mitch Albom, best-selling author with Christina Ryan Claypool, blogger<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cTuesdays with Morrie\u201d<\/em> continues to sustain popularity probably because it addresses one of the most challenging issues that individuals must face; human mortality. It wasn\u2019t predicted to be a bestseller, but years and millions of copies later and counting, readers have voiced their opinion.<\/p>\n In the book, Mitch Albom and Morrie Schwartz explore the reality of death and the lessons learned in life. For fourteen consecutive Tuesdays, Mitch interviewed an elderly Schwartz; his former college professor who was dying from (ALS) Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease. Albom quotes Morrie as saying people don\u2019t talk about death, because \u201cno one really believes they are going to die.\u201d Admittedly, death can come as a shock when it occurs in our inner circle, because it isn\u2019t supposed to happen to us or to the people we love. Or when we hear of another family\u2019s tragic loss we sometimes feel guilty, because we are grateful that it happened to someone else. So, we hug our spouses and kids a little tighter, hoping to stave off this inevitable grim reaper<\/p>\n It was almost a decade ago, when the question of death began to preoccupy my own thoughts. At the time, I was waiting for the results of a biopsy for a relative who I love more than my life. During those long days of waiting, I tried desperately to busy myself with distracting activities, so I opted for a little \u201cRetail Therapy.\u201d While spending time shopping, I first heard the now classic country tune, \u201cLive Like You Were Dying\u201d <\/i>being sung by Tim McGraw.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t stone me, but I\u2019m not a big country fan. Yet the lyrics stopped me in my tracks. The song is about a man in his early forties whose medical tests reveal that his time on this Earth will be short. When asked what he did when he got the news, the verse says, \u201cI went sky diving, I went Rocky mountain climbing\u2026And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter, and I gave forgiveness I\u2019d been denying\u2026And I finally read the Good Book and I took a good long hard look at what I\u2019d do if I could do it all again\u2026\u201d <\/i><\/p>\n While listening to these poignant words, I stood motionless in the store aisle clutching a pair of kitchen curtains, fighting back tears. My faith crumbled.\u00a0 I was fearful that the song was some kind of prophetic preparation for the bad news that was soon to be relayed concerning my loved one\u2019s biopsy.\u00a0Thank God, I was wrong. The physician\u2019s verdict was \u201cno cancer.\u201d \u00a0I was so relieved that I can\u2019t remember what the doctor said after that. But since then sometimes these challenging lyrics come back to me.<\/p>\n Like recently, when just days before the pool closed for the season, I heard Live Like You Were Dying <\/i>over the loud speaker there. It\u2019s been almost a decade since I had first heard this tune, and I now view life a lot like Morrie Schwartz. Because I think it was Morrie\u2019s wisdom that taught me to try embrace whatever life stage you\u2019re in as I traveled through his last days with him thanks to Albom\u2019s writing.<\/p>\n You see, on the very day I met Mitch Albom, I had buried a precious 41-year-old friend after her valiant three year battle against breast cancer. Making me all too aware how fragile and brief this life can be.\u00a0Albom\u2019s Morrie didn\u2019t become an iconic example of how one should die, but rather how one should live especially in a society that seems terrified of both growing old and death. In parting, a bit of Morrie\u2019s sage advice, \u201cAging is not just decay, you know. It\u2019s growth. It\u2019s more than the negative that you\u2019re going to die. It\u2019s also the positive that you understand you\u2019re going to die, and that you live a better life because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n Christina Ryan Claypool is an Amy Award winning\u00a0freelance journalist and inspirational speaker who has been featured on CBN’s 700 Club and Joyce Meyer Ministries Enjoying Everyday Life TV show. This column originally appeared in The Lima News, & Troy Daily News, among others. Contact her through her Website:\u00a0www.christinaryanclaypool.com<\/a> <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last fall, I met my writing idol, Mitch Albom. The famous journalist was the keynote speaker for a Cancer Awareness Symposium held near Dayton, Ohio. Like hundreds of other mostly Ohio fans, Albom signed my copy of his book, The … Continue reading