5 Lessons from The Five People You Meet in Heaven

The first I knew Mitch Albom was by his work Tuesdays with Morrie which is absolutely outstanding, totally impeccable. Then I started to read the five people you meet in heaven by Mitch Albom. It’s about Eddie, the white haired old man, who had lived his life in the world for 83 years. He spent his life in Ruby Pier amusement park where he also grew up there. Maintaining the rides was his job there, following his father’s old job. He hated to have a life there but his life was so messed up after he came back from a war and became limp so he didn’t have any other choices. On his 83rd birthday, he got into an accident by trying to save a girl when there was an accident from one of the rides he maintained. He didn’t know whether he did save the girl or not because the next thing he knows he is in heaven and meets five people who told him priceless lessons.

Again, I was bemused by how decent and sincere Albom’s writings. It feels like a storytelling before sleep but it also makes the adult cries while telling it. The tone he brought in this novel is very warm and sensitive. By the time, I grow to sympathize how clueless the character is despite his nonchalant behaviour regarding his messy-stuck life. Needless to say, the episodic plot is also the key in learning the character, Eddie, and gives me the whirlwind emotion. I cannot tell you the shortfall part because its simplicity, yet carrying tons of lessons and emotions, is the reason why I keep turning the pages.

So, here I would like to mention again the five lessons can be learned from Eddie’s meeting with hisfive people in heaven :

1. We are all connected

Do you ever behave like you don’t know someone then you think that you never ever impact that someone’s life in any kind of part? From the first lesson, you’ll learn that you’re wrong about that.

“There are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another that you can separate the breeze from the wind”

When Eddie met The Blue Man whom he thought he had nothing to do with, is actually the man that Eddie killed, unknowingly. It was just because little Eddie ran for catching the ball on the road but it led to The Blue Man’s car accident who was driving on that road at that time. Eddie didn’t know about it, because after he got the ball, he immediately went back to his friends. The things afterward? He didn’t care. Even when he came to The Blue Man’s funeral when his parents dragged him to come, he didn’t care because he was just a kid.

I think it will give us a good reason or at least a second thought if we ever wonder to do something mischief. Because even just a slightest nonchalant act that we performed might give an impact to our surrounding and people. And the size of the impact? Who knows..

This is another good quote that I like from the first lesson. “No life is a waste. The only time we waste is the time we spend thinking we are alone.”

2. Sacrifice is part of life

“Sacrifice is part of life. It’s supposed to be. It’s not something to regret. It’s something to aspire to. Little sacrifices. Big sacrifices.”

The second person Eddie met in heaven was his captain back from the time he joined the army and went to a war. Eddie just found out that his captain died for him, for saving his comrades’ life. Eddie was in denial about it and didn’t understand why the captain sacrificed his life for others. Then the captain told him “ sometimes when you sacrifice something precious, you’re not really using it. You’re just passing it on someone else.” It’s a promise that the captain tried to keep, and he did. But the price is he had to sacrifice his life to keep his promise. And it’s worth it, because the captain’s precious life was not taken. Instead he passed it on to Eddie and his friends.

When you make a sacrifice, maybe not only once maybe twice, three times or million times, be grateful for able to do so. Because you’re actually passing it on to someone else. You may work hard endlessly to feed and to keep your family safe. You may not go to college so your sister gets the chance to. You may give your kidney so the needed one can survive. You may walk hundred miles just to get an education. All sacrifice is worth it. Because truth to be told, you’re passing it on to someone else. And that’s how life is.

For those who are granted with such blessing, never take someone’s sacrifice for granted.

3. Holding anger is poison

Eddie resented his father for all of his life for his father was violent and never gave any affection toward him and his brother at all. When Eddie was in a complete distressed at post-war time, all Eddie’s father said to him was to get a job. Nothing else. Eddie had set his father as cruel man in his mind. He got mad by just remembering his drunkard father. He held his anger and always held it even after his father died. Even after he, himself, died. But did it give any good for Eddie?

“Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves”

Ruby Pier, herself, gave the lesson to Eddie. Yes, the one whose name was used as the amusement park’s name is the third person Eddie meets in heaven. Before she died, she appeared to be in the same room when Eddie’s father was dying. She told Eddie that his father called his mother’s name, Eddie’s name, his brother’s name out of guilt and regret the night before he died in the next morning. So what’s good of holding the anger? It led Eddie to resentment all the time instead of loving his father, even after the death was so near after his father’s incident. Holding anger harmed us. It will never cause any good to our soul. Forgive, don’t hate. It doesn’t matter about anything else but do good to your own cause first.

4. Lost love is still love

Eddie loved his wife, Marguerite, wholeheartedly. She gave him love, comfort, joy, strength and everything else. But she passed away, so early at age 47, left Eddie alone for the rest of his cursed life. At least, that was what he thought. She left him alone. So, what matters about love then when she wasn’t there anymore for him?

“Lost love is till love, Eddie. It takes a different form, that’s all. You can’t see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move them around a dance floor. But when those senses weakens, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. You nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it.”

Marguerite stayed with him for a longer time when he met her as the fourth person. She told Eddie even though years passed by without her, Eddie’s memory was the one that nurtured him. She might no longer be there for him physically. Yet her love was still there, through the memory. When you nurture your memory of your lost love, you’ll stay alive. You still have the reason to wake up in the morning and get by each day. It’s just a different form of love. Like Marguerite said, “ Life has to end. Love doesn’t.”

5. Your small act can give meaning to others

Last but not least, the moment when Eddie met a little girl, Tala. He didn’t know her and never saw her. But then she told Eddie, “You burn me. You make me fire.” Evidently, she was the little girl’s shadow Eddie saw. It was when he and his friends successfully escaped from the enemy at war and they started to burn all the houses around as their glorifying feeling after a long torture and lost a comrade. His friends tried to stop him when he was walking absentmindedly to the fire after he saw the glimpse of that little girl’s shadow. His friends (and captain) thought he was losing his mind because of the war but none could stop him getting there. That was why the captain decided to shot him on the leg as the only way to stop Eddie which made him limp for the rest of his life. That shadow wasn’t from Eddie’s illusion. It was real and he let himself burned the girl.

Eddie always thought that he had never done anything good in his whole life. He was sad and gloomy all the time. Not from Tala’s eyes. The little girl said, “Children. You keep them safe. You make good for me.” You may hate your life and feel useless. But again, small act can give meaning to others. In Eddie’s case, he maintained all the rides every single day, which was suck for him. Little did he know, he kept the children safe and… happy. He gave meaning to the children’s life. Although he barely knew his life’s meaning.

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So, would I recommend the book for you? Definitely. There are things that we don’t understand in this world but Mitch Albom tries to depict how heaven will answer all the questions that we don’t even know it exists. It’s a good fiction novel for you to read. It’s a wholesome!