ALS Ice Bucket challenge in honor of Morrie!

A few days ago, my dear friend Julie Iraninejad nominated me for the ALS ice bucket challenge! What is interesting, and I’m sure it’s no coincidence, is that I just finished reading the book ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ over the summer which is a beautiful and moving true story about a professor from Brandeis who died of ALS. His student, Mitch Albom, spent every Tuesday during the last few months of Morrie’s life learning from him life lessons about regrets, death, family, emotions, the fear of aging, marriage, culture and forgiveness (to name a few).
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and was moved by how Morrie addresses each topic in such a real, no-nonsense way. Below the video I will share some of the advice in his book (so please scroll down to read them). So in honor of Morrie, I accept the challenge!

A few of Morrie’s life lessons:
“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.”
“Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”
“Don’t cling to things, because everything is impermanent… 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…You’re afraid of the pain, you’re afraid of the grief… But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head even, you experience them fully and completely. You know what pain is. You know what love is. “All right. I have experienced that emotion. I recognize that emotion. Now I need to detach from that emotion for a moment.”
“Everyone knows they’re going to die but nobody believes it. If we did, we would do things differently.”
“Death ends a life, not a relationship.”
“Well, for one thing, the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. We’re teaching the wrong things. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it. Create your own. Most people can’t do it.”
“Be compassionate,” Morrie whispered. And take responsibility for each other. If we only learned those lessons, this world would be so much better a place.”