It was The Five People You Meet In Heaven.
Truth to tell, I didn’t like Tuesdays With Morrie, the first book by Mitch Albom which is in the Favorite Book List of almost every other booklover. I found it too preachy, dripping in saccharine and it just expounded on things that I knew all along… that life already taught me. I can understand why some people are so inspired and affected by this book. But for me, I sort of experienced it firsthand.
This book was a different. I couldn’t put it down and became one of the few books I had to finish in one sitting. For one, it talks about unfamiliar territory….death and the concept of heaven. Albom touched a sensitive and poignant topic which is the fear and obsession of any mortal. Albom used DEATH to give a new meaning to LIFE and he succeeds in doing so.
His concept of death and heaven is nothing out of ordinary. What’s unexpected is that we saw our life in Eddie’s. His story presents a proverbial paranoia of which five people we will meet if this is the correct concept of heaven.
Alboms injected the correct amount of sentimentality to deliver the transcendent impact. This book did not make me teary-eyed but it left me with renewed sense of importance. It presented alternative answers to some of my life questions. It re-acknowledged my vow to leave this world a better place by touching as many lives as I can. Should my time come, I want one my five people to thank me for being a blessing in his life. As simple as that.
Speaking of the five people, I have identified my potential Ruby and my potential Captain. I have a vague concept of my Marguerite (unless someone else will come along). Of course, I cannot identify my Blue Man and I do hope that I won’t have my Tala.
My choice lines from this book are:
The running boy is inside every man, no matter how old he gets.
Holding anger is poison, it eats you from the inside. Hatred is a curved blade: the harm we do to others, we do to ourselves
When these senses weaken, another heightens. Memory becomes your partner. Life has to end, love doesn’t.
Five Reasons To Like TFPYMIH
1. It inculcates profound values without the bias and discourse that taints the values adapted through religion.
2. It is written in simple, accessible prose. I’ve said it many times: what’s simple is often true.
3. It is only about 200-pages long. But its impact is beyond measure.
4. It has a lot of references to the Philippines. One of the five people is Filipino. Albom only missed out on one Tagalog translation: sundalong was used instead of sundalo (soldier).
5. It puts your life in perspective. Above anything, it forces you to understand your life NOW. It shows you that in the intricate tapestry called life, our individual threads become interwoven and one thing leads to another.