How It All Goes Down
The Eighth Tuesday: We Talk About Money
- Mitch reads the newspaper to Morrie; it says that a famous CEO's tombstone reads "I Don't Want My Tombstone to Read 'I Never Owned A Network.'" (18.1). To each his own, we suppose.
- Morrie connects it back to the age-old problem: We don't value the right things. Today, the wrong thing we value is money.
- As a side note, Mitch tells us that Morrie has good and bad days; luckily, today is one of his good days.
- Morrie talks about how our culture brainwashes us, repeating certain false values over and over until we believe them.
- He believes these fake values are simply a replacement for what people really want, which is love.
- Morrie then talks about the other things that can't be bought but have value: time, commitment, and such.
- Mitch looks around the room and realizes that everything looks pretty much the same as it did the first day he came. Morrie doesn't value things because he's faced with something much more important.
- Then he starts making notes so that he doesn't have to make eye contact with Morrie. He knows that he's guilty of having the wrong priorities.
- Morrie calls him out, and says that showing off with material things isn't worth it. People will either look down on you or envy you, so it's totally a lose-lose situation.
- Using himself as an example, Morrie says that he's using the precious time he has left to give others what he can of himself.