“That was an enthralling experience” I kept thinking as I completed reading it in one go. For those two hours, I remember, I was transported to a pool of thoughts where I could comprehend and associate the very essence of the book to our human lives. The words were translated into a strong impression that left me pondering about several aspects of our human lives. This post is not a review, but my insights of the lessons from the book that subtly touched upon and drawing parallel those to our human lives.
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‘The Five People You Meet In Heaven’ by Mitch Albom, for some time made me forget about all my pending assignments, tasks and completely held my attention till the end. Well, I would like to give a brief summary of the book. The story is about a war veteran named Eddie who feels trapped in a meaningless life of fixing rides at a seaside amusement park named Ruby Pier. He had lost his one leg during the war time. As he grew older, his days at the park were full of his dull routine of work, loneliness and regret about his life. Once, while working he noticed a tragic accident happening on a ride. He sees a little girl from a falling cart and runs towards the ride to save that girl. Eventually, the girl is saved but he dies. Then the story picks up from when he wakes up in his afterlife in heaven where he learns that he will be encountered with five people who will teach him his five lessons. Hence, one by one, Eddie’s five people revisit their connection to him and thereby give him his five lessons. While reading the book, I could evidently draw parallels between those five lessons and our lives.
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I too, found it a bit strange when the book starts by an ending, as even the author explains this by saying, “It might seem strange to start a story with an ending. But all endings are beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.” This piqued my curiosity to know the deep meaning the book wants to offer its readers.
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The protagonist Eddie meets his first person named Blue Man. The lesson was, “That there are no random acts. We all are interconnected.” This makes me think about the quality of interconnectedness we have, intrinsically, that binds us together in life. We observe, each act has an impact. No matter how significant it is, it leaves its imprints with us. This makes me to think about the reason behind every act. The philosopher Aristotle also believed that everything happening to you today has a reason because it turns you into the person you are becoming. Everything that happens knowingly or unknowingly has a reason behind it. This gradually becomes an empowering principle in your life. When I think about this lesson in my life, it takes me to those times when the doctor had advised me to take complete bed rest for a week. I was not able to do all those things I wished to. I believe those days were really significant for me which made me realise the importance of all those good things, I have, in my life rather than just cribbing about and giving importance to the difficulties of life. This certainly made me about my life from an optimistic point of view.
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The second lesson Eddie learns is from the Captain, “Sacrifices makes an impact in the lives of other people.” As in the story, Eddie gives more importance to save that little girl from a falling cart rather than his own life. This indeed saved the girl’s life and she was able to enjoy the rest of her life with family and friends.
When I reflect this lesson in my life, I was clearly reminded of an incident that I have witnessed. That day, there were some people with me waiting for the train to arrive on the platform. There were some poor kids sitting on a side of the platform. They did seem to be week as they might have not got food for several hours. Seeing them, instinctively, I immediately removed my tiffin and gave it to them. That was such a beautiful moment seeing them when both the kids and I were satisfied. Sacrifices are important part of our life. When you care about someone, you are willing to make sacrifices. The author makes an eye-opening quote, “When you sacrifice something precious, you are not really losing it, you are just passing it on to someone else.
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Eddie gets his third lesson from Ruby, “Importance of forgiveness”. Forgiveness is one of the keys to a happy and beautiful life. In the story, Eddie could not move on to the next phase of his journey, unless he forgives his father. This throws light on a core concept which is important for people to learn in life. I remember an incident from my childhood days. When I very young, I used to complain about my friend’s behaviour to my grandmother. Every time she used to tell me to ‘forgive them.’ She says that, when you are stuck in the past you cannot move on. You cannot create new memories in life, when your mind is filled with some gloomy thoughts about someone or something in past. Hence, we should always choose to forgive and move on in order to live a happy and peaceful life. Although at that moment, I didn’t get the whole essence behind this thought, but while reading this part I was able to decipher my grandmother’s thoughts very well. This also reminds me about an intriguing quote by Oprah Winfrey, “Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could have been any different.”
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The next lesson Eddie gets is from his wife, Marguerite, “The essence of love.” In the story, his wife Marguerite, teaches Eddie that although people may eventually pass away, their love will live throughout, even after their death. The power of love is so strong that it keeps two lives connected forever. Even if any one of them dies, the bond lives in their memory eternally. As, the person leaves physically but their soul is intertwined forever. For this one, I spend quite a time finding a perfect example. So, I decided to go down for a walk to see if I could recollect a suitable incident. In our apartment, there is a small house made for dogs where a male and a female lived together for past three years. Few months back due to some health issue, the female one could not survive and eventually died. I remember from that day onwards till date, the male one still tries to find her everywhere, if he could find her anytime. This made me think about the essence and power of love it has in its core to tie two lives together and eternally.
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Eddie gets his last lesson from Tala, “Every human life has a purpose.” In the story, Eddie thinks his life on earth was a disappointing and unfulfilling one. He felt regret that he did not live to his potential and his life was a complete failure. But when Tala meets him, she says that though he thought his life to be mundane and meaningless, his life too had a purpose, that was to keep thousands of children safe at the amusement park for more than 40 years. Hence, Eddie’s life was indeed a meaningful one, where he did serve his purpose in life. We all do serve a specific purpose in life. The universe has given a particular role or task to perform. We think that we have not do anything much, but in a way, we are doing the tasks allocated to us for this life. Not everyone becomes a doctor, or a teacher, or a lawyer. Every individual has been assigned with a specific job in their life to fulfill its purpose which makes him the person he is. It is quite fascinating as to how even these five people had their work in heaven to teach Eddie his five lessons by revisiting their earthly life connections. Throughout the book, I could relate these lessons to our human lives which provided me even more concepts to read about. Let that sink in!
I would like to know your thoughts on my attempt to find parallels between the five lessons learnt from 'The Five People You Meet In Heaven' by Mitch Albom and our human lives. If you too, find this book a captivating one, you can get a copy through the link below-
Do let me know, if you find some parallels between these lessons and other arts too!
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