I went with my roomate today to the Circuit Playhouse in memphis. "tuesday's with Morrie" was playing, I had read the book. I have read it and Mitch's other one "The Five People You Meet in Heaven." I really like a lot of what Mitch Albom has to say. If you have never read either of the books I recomend both.

The first is about living life, the second is about understanding the life you have lived. It reminds me how easy it would be for me to waste away in front of the television or the internet or even with a good book. I have a hard time experiencing life, living in the day, making the best of the relationships I have and have had. I often get into a rut of looking back on my life with displeasure. Through some parts of my life I was like a tornado leaving a wake of disaster behind me, ask a few of my exgirlfriends. Some parts of my life were so lifeless that it was like I didn't even live.

I was sitting in the theater today thinking, "I wish I could have already seen this play instead of sitting through it now." Not because I didn't like the play but because it is so hard for me to focus attention. Having said that I also want to say I love the theater. I prefer it to the movies, because the people, I believe, are doing harder work, they can forget a line, have a bad day and so on.

I cried in parts of this play, and wept in others. Morrie was a college teacher, and though he moved data from his mind to that of his students, that wasn't his whole philosophy of teaching. Morrie inspired. When I preach or teach I move data, but more than that I want to inspire and give hope.

In the end, I look back on my past, in friends basements doing things that the good kid everyone saw wouldn't do, the pain I caused other and has been caused in me because of others. My favorite movie is called "Shadowlands." It is about really understanding what it means to love. to love will cause one to feel pain. The statement in that movie concerning the death of his wife joy, spoken by his wife, in the movie, is : the pain then [after her death] is part of the joy now.

Some wonderful friends left me this summer and I debated as to whether or not it is even worth loving just to lose the closest people to me. However I know, of course it is worth it. The pain in loss attests most of all the sweetness of the relationship.

As Morrie said, " Invest in the human family. Invest in people. Build a little community of those you love and who love you."
-tuesday's with Morrie., 157