According to Morrie, "When you realize you are going to die, you see everything much differently." This aphorism continues with the same idea expressed in the previous one, therefore you should adhere to both to truly live. .
The third aphorism, "When you're in bed, you're dead" warns of taking the acceptance of death too far. Morrie's logic is that if you stay in bed all day, as if you have nothing to get up for, then you really do have nothing to get up for and you may as well be dead. The advice that lies within this aphorism is that even when you know you'll soon be overtaken by death and you've accepted this, you should continue to live your life as normally as possible. If you give up and willingly lie in bed all day, you've basically succumbed to death far earlier than necessary. Our group felt this advice should be pursued because it teaches obstinacy when dealing with death, which is a difficult trait to have.
Not all of Morrie's aphorisms deal with the commonly morbid topic of death. "Love each other or perish" is an aphorism by Morrie's favorite poet, W.H. Auden. Our group felt this should be adopted into our lives for its obvious objection of teaching love. In Morrie's discussion of this aphorism he is talking about family and the love we need to have for each other. He says, "And it's so true. Without love, we are birds with broken wings," which means we are still humans, but we cannot do the thing in life we need to live, which is love. Hence the aphorism by Auden, which gives us two simple choices: love each other or perish. Life is composed of either one or the other, and Auden's intention is to make humans love, a sagacious way to live life. .
The last aphorism that seemed to have an omniscient yet adaptable quality to it is one by Levine. Morrie mentions it to Mitch during another conversation about love. "Let it come in," he says, "We think we don't deserve love, we think if we let it in we'll become too soft.
