“This is how a legacy is built—one memory at a time.”
Ah. As always, it’s difficult to finish Mitch Albom’s book without holding back your tears—or silently consoling yourself while getting deep into his works. Crazy.
If you think reading ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ is heartbreaking, this one is even more heart-wrenching. It’s like a slower, sadder version of the ‘Thirty-Nine’ K-drama and ‘Your Lie in April’ anime—except that this one, it’s real. It happened.
What would you actually do if the ‘holiest’ person you know asks you to make a eulogy? It’s a nagging question that kept the narrative going—and somehow, despite Mitch Albom’s talent for stringing beautiful words together, nothing can fully capture the deeds of a kind soul and the lasting impact they’ve made. Hence, the responsibility to keep the person alive, and in this form, a book.
As someone who loves to finish everything in one sitting, it oddly took two months to finish the book. Subtly, it’s as if it’s asking to have it read slowly, to not be in a hurry, and to take the words and savor deeply their meaning. As the Reb puts it: “You can know the whole world and still feel lost in it.”
If you’re looking for a worthwhile read—and ready to confront those lingering thoughts about faith and religion—I urge you to read this book. It’s short. Very short. But it would take a lot of pondering and self-introspection.
Read at your own risk. You’ve been warned.
Favorite Quotes from Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom
Here are some of my favorite quotes from Mitch Albom’s ‘Have a Little Faith’.
But what stays the same in life?
When that time comes, I think you’ll know what to say.
Most of our work demands flexibility. Rituals require the opposite.
When you come to the end, that’s where God begins.
Getting old, we can deal with it. Being old is the problem.
This is how legacy is built. One memory at a time.
You’re going to be who are destined to be—no matter how long it will take.
Remember: the only difference between ‘marital’ and ‘martial’ is where you put the ‘i.’
When things aren’t so great, don’t junk the whole thing. It’s okay to have arguments. It’s okay that the other one nudges you a little, bothers you a little. It’s part of being close to someone.
The word commitment has somehow lost its meaning. I’m old enough to remember when it used to be positive. A committed person was someone to be admired. He was loyal and steady. Now, a commitment is something you avoid. You don’t want to tie yourself down.
What happens if you don’t commit? It’s your choice. But you miss what’s on the other side. A happiness you cannot find alone.
The genius of life is its variety.
Even in our faith, we have questions and answers, interpretations, debates. In Christianity, in Catholicism, in other faiths, the same thing—debates, interpretations. That is the beauty. It’s like being a musician. If you found the note and you keep hitting that note all the time, you would go nuts. It’s the blending of the different notes that makes the music—the music of believing in something bigger than yourself.
You should be convinced of the authenticity of what you have, but you must also be humble enough to say that we don’t know everything. And since we don’t know everything, we must accept that another person may believe something else.
Anyhow, without the commonality of work—the complaints, the gossip—how much was there to talk about?
You have to drink your own elixir to heal your own broken heart.
We are all frail parts of something powerful.
Maybe we’re still alive because we have a little more to give—or get.
Napoleon once dismissed religion as ‘what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.’
Everyday, we wrestle with conflicting urges.
We get so many lives between birth and death.
Nothing haunts us like the things we don’t say.
You can know the whole world and still feel lost in it.
Because when the world quiets to the sound of your own breathing, we all want the same things: comfort, love, and a peaceful heart.
With a little faith, people can fix things.
The human spirit is a thing to behold.
Dakilanglaagan 