Professor Morrie Schwartz loves life and people and conversation and walks in the woods and dancing till late. He approaches everything with energy and commitment. When death approaches, Morrie becomes a dedicated student of it and shares his discoveries with enthusiasm.

For Morrie, the chief lesson of death is that life shouldn’t be wasted. Death sets a limit on a person’s lifespan; as such, it’s a timer that reminds us to participate as fully as we can in the years we have available. Most people, though, see death simply as something horrible to avoid. The result is that people waste their lives over trivialities, getting and spending instead of giving and loving.

Morrie also realizes that death doesn’t make a person disappear; instead, a person’s love for others lives on in their hearts. The difference we can make comes from loving and contributing to the people around us, and those benefits continue long after we’re physically gone. Our caring for others bestows on us a deep satisfaction, and this makes our lives, however long or short, worthwhile.

Morrie takes this wisdom one step further by continuing, during his final months, to give of his knowledge to as many people as he can.