One of the reasons we chose an active adult community for the next chapter of our lives was the myriad of opportunities to join clubs and experience events. We have just scratched the surface in our first 18 months in Sun City Hilton Head, but we are enjoying so many diverse and interesting activities including “Meet the Author” presentations sponsored by our Lifestyles Office.
I recently attended a “Meet the Author” event at our Hidden Cypress Clubhouse with a couple hundred of my Sun City neighbors. The speaker was a gentleman named Robert Schwartz and he was visiting to talk about his role in helping to get the book “The Wisdom of Morrie: Living and Aging Creatively and Joyfully” published.
Robert happens to be the son of Morrie Schwartz, a former professor of psychology at Brandeis University who had spent years of his life writing down his thoughts that would one day be published as “The Wisdom of Morrie,” mainly through the efforts of Robert. The rough draft of the book, which Robert found in his father’s desk after he died, is filled with tips for living “vibrantly” with hope instead of despair.
Robert jumped right into commenting that most people would recognize his father from the 1997 best-selling book “Tuesdays with Morrie,” written by sportswriter and broadcaster Mitch Albom, who was a student of Professor Schwartz’s.
In July of 1994, Robert’s father was diagnosed with ALS. Morrie began to focus on what’s important to you at the end of life. He asked questions like: Who am I really? What have I done? What is important and meaningful to me? What difference does it make that I have lived? What does it mean to be truly human, and where am I on that scale?
Jack Thomas wrote an article about Morrie in the Boston Globe, and Ted Koppel did a feature on Morrie on “Nightline,” which Mitch Albom saw. Mitch reached out to Morrie and spent time with his old friend and professor. Throughout his 14 Tuesday lessons with Mitch, Robert said, Morrie focused on the point that love is the essence of every person, and every relationship. Morrie quoted Wystan Hugh Auden, professor of poetry at Oxford, that “To live without love, is to live with nothing.”
It wasn’t until Mitch was interviewed by Oprah that the book became a No. 1 bestseller with over 18 million sold worldwide. Prior to Oprah, very few people knew about the book. “Tuesdays with Morrie” became a play, and Morrie was portrayed by legendary actor Jack Lemmon in the 1999 television film adaptation of the book. Though it was written 30 years ago, the issues are still prescient.
Robert returned to Newton, Massachusetts in 1989 from traveling in Europe after graduating college and lived with his parents while his dad began to first write what would become “The Wisdom of Morrie.” Robert then moved to Tokyo where he lived for 25 years. He became a successful author himself, as well as an entrepreneur and music and movie producer.
Robert said that his father became more and more focused on the psychological aspects of aging and the techniques for aging with grace. He studied ageism and the differences between loneliness and solitude. Robert noted that Japanese culture has much more reverence for seniors. Sensei (teacher) literally means “born before another” or “one who comes before.”
The website for “The Wisdom of Morrie” includes this description:
Morrie Schwartz, the beloved subject of the classic, multimillion-copy number one bestseller Tuesdays with Morrie, explores these questions and many more in this profound, poetic and poignant masterpiece of living and aging joyfully and creatively. Later life can be filled with many challenges, but it can also be one of the most beautiful and rewarding passages in anyone’s lifetime. Morrie draws on his experiences as a social psychologist, teacher, father, friend, and sage to offer us a road map to navigate our futures. A great companion to Tuesdays with Morrie or the perfect introduction to Morrie’s thoughtful philosophies, The Wisdom of Morrie is filled with empathic insights, stories, anecdotes, and advice, told in Morrie’s reassuring, calm, and timeless voice. Let The Wisdom of Morrie be your guide in exploring deep questions of how to live and how to love.
Robert shared these six “nuggets” from the book:
1. Laugh as much as you can! Humor has evaporated from people’s lives. Morrie said you want to find people and activities that bring laughter into your life. Life is supposed to be joyful.
2. Meditation: He really had to work at it. Calms you down, focuses your energy. Seniors who meditate live five years longer on average.
3. Find your interest. Learn about it and pursue it and educate yourself about it. Find what brings you joy!
4. Focus your energy. Don’t multitask, especially with relationships.
5. We need relationships. Social activities are critical. The size of your bank account is not what matters on your deathbed; it’s your relationships, your experiences.
6. Develop a spiritual connection.
Robert was asked by a man in the audience, “What did you learn about your dad that you didn’t know?” He said Morrie lost his mother to tuberculosis as an 8-year-old. Robert didn’t know the details. Robert spoke of his father’s undying support of a liberal arts education. He said he was very close to his father and had lots of talks with him but that his father was at his core a deeply private man.
When asked about what he thought about the influence of social media, Robert said, “social media as a vehicle is amazing. It helps me stay in touch with my Japanese friends. It’s a focus issue. Technology interferes with people’s relationships.”
Robert sold every copy of “The Wisdom of Morrie” that he brought with him before his official talk even began. He wrapped up his talk by thanking the large crowd and said this was the largest crowd ever for him as a speaker. No doubt his father would have been pleased.
