ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

When I saw the ice bucket challenge my first thought was not on the cold water or the funny reactions. My first thought was Morrie Schwartz.

Mitch Albom's Tuesdays With Morrie has been a powerful book for me. A young man who has forgotten how to really live combined with an old teacher who has learned how to die. Morrie was dying from ALS, or "Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease,". According to the ALS Association it " is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually leads to their death. When the motor neurons die, the ability of the brain to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. With voluntary muscle action progressively affected, patients in the later stages of the disease may become totally paralyzed."

Every case is different. Some pass away quickly. Others live many productive years with the disease as a part of their lives. Any given year about 30,000 American struggle with the disease and there is no cure. There is one medication developed to slow the progression and spread of ALS, but it does not cure it. I love how this challenge has spread awareness and ignited support for research and I can't help but thinking what a difference it would make if each year there was one cause everyone supported and donated for. Cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's Disease, local food banks, education in Africa. Take your pick- name one. Can you imagine the difference if we saw this kind of incredible support for so many causes?

But lest we forget the real purpose behind all the hilarious ice bucket challenge videos ( I mean, who didn't love Carrie Underwood and Mike Fisher getting the ice dumped from a tractor, or Jennifer Garner and Shakira helping their husbands complete the challenge), I want you to remember Morrie. Or someone else who has been affected by ALS. You know how cold you are after that cold water? How you momentarily lose control of limbs and speech? Imagine living your life that way, slowly losing control of movement, speech, and eventually all other functions. So remember why we are doing this.

When we remember, part of them is still with us. So here are some of my favorite Morrie quotes:


“Death ends a life, not a relationship.”


“So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”


“The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in. Let it come in. We think we don’t deserve love, we think if we let it in we’ll become too soft. But a wise man named Levin said it right. He said, “Love is the only rational act.”