Author's Note: In my lit. group we are reading the book The 5 People you Meet in Heaven. In the book, Eddie is a lonely old man who lives in regret. One day while working at the amusement park, he's killed trying to save a girl from a broken roller coaster. When Eddie gets to Heaven, he meets 5 different people, each of them teach him a different lesson. I wrote this piece explaining what my lessons would be. My focus is word choice.
"Live your life, where your funeral is easy to do," my pastor said one night at youth group after a girl died in a tragic event. The point of this quote was to tell the audience to think about their actions and attitude. For example, Eddie regretted so much from his past, and his attitude showed it. Kids were afraid of him. Everyone can learn from Eddie in this book. The book can give everybody a different outlook on life.
In the book, Eddie meets up with five different people. Each person was either impacted by Eddie, or Eddie was influenced by them. The first person he met was the Blue Man. When Eddie was little he was playing with his new baseball in his yard. The ball rolls in the street, and Eddie carelessly runs to retrieve it. He runs in front of a car to get it. The driver slams on the brakes and avoids hitting him. Eddie thought the incident was forgotten and continues to play. But it wasn't. The driver dies shortly afterwards of a heart attack. The lesson he taught Eddie was that we are all connected; nothing happens by accident.
Even though Eddie didn't struggle with it too much, patience would be my first lesson. Patience is a life skill. In school you have to be patient with other students and teachers you might not like. In your adult life, you will have to work with people you might not get along with.
The second lesson I would learn would be the impact of my attitude. Although it was not one of the lessons he learned in Heaven, it was one of the things Eddie struggled with as well. After his wife died, Eddie lived without meaning. His attitude impacted everyone. I can have a really negative attitude. This book helped me put in perspective how it can affect other people.
Lesson number three would be how bad procrastination can be. This lesson doesn't necessarily relate to one of the lessons Eddie learned. Every week, I wait till the last minute to finish something. This is not the best idea. Not only is it a bad habit, but most likely, the work isn't the quality it should be.
My fourth lesson would be the lesson of forgiveness. This lesson is very similar to the third lesson Eddie learns which teaches Eddie to let go of his anger towards his father. His dad abused him when he was young, and Eddie never got over it. Forgiving someone is hard to do. According to dictionary.com (2011), "To forgive means to cease to feel resentment against." After talking to Ruby, the third person he meets in Heaven, Eddie finds his father and forgives him.
My fifth and final lesson would be the importance of hard work. Eddie never had a problem with this. He resorted to doing this after his dear wife died. This was how he escaped reality. For me, it's not doing too much hard work, but too little. I can learn from Eddie's example -- to work hard, but not make hard work your life.
Eddie can help us all learn different lessons by putting life in perspective. If he would have had another chance, he would have forgave his dad earlier. This would have erased the stress felt by his mom, his brother, and even himself. This book makes you think what you struggle with in life, what are the five lessons you would learn, and how would you going to change them.
"Define Resort."
Dictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. <dictionary.reference.com/browse/resort>.
"FREE SUMMARY The Five People You Meet In Heaven STUDY GUIDE/BOOK NOTES/CHAPTER ANALYSIS by Mitch Albom."
TheBestNotes.com - Free Study Guide Book Notes Online Literature Summaries Booknotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. <http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Five
