Death is an enigmatic phenomenon that humanity dances with. Experienced by all at one time or another, death weaves its way through our lives and presents us with the reality of its finality and the truth of the unknown. Consequently, death brings with it the natural need to mourn the loss of those passed down. For most aging adults, death becomes a more obvious issue to deal with than in earlier years. Some cope better than others with the inevitable nature of death, seeing it as the necessary conclusion to a long life, while others deny its approach and attempt to delay its occurrence for as long as possible. The book and resulting film Tuesdays with Morrie, is a didactic story book of Mitch and his former college professor Morrie. Diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, Morrie finds himself with only weeks to live (Albom, 1997). Lou Gehrig's disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord. When motor neurons die, the brain's ability to initiate and control muscle movement is lost. The progressive degeneration of motor neurons in ALS ultimately leads to [patients'] death (Alsa.org, 2014). After learning of his condition, Morrie asked himself, "Should I wither and disappear, or make the most of the time I have left?" ?” (Albom, 1997, pp 10). True to his vocation as a teacher, he uses the days of his death as an opportunity to present his final lesson: "he would walk that final bridge between life and death and recount the journey" (Albom, 1997, pp 10). As a dying adult, Morrie's story presents an encouraging message about what death means and how to deal with it, showing how death itself can allow for growth and development... middle of the paper... within our anticipated death. Morrie held this view and believed that death drives the way we live: “Everyone knows they will die but no one believes it. If we did, we would do things differently” (23). A study by Cicirelli (2001), demonstrated that death is a motivating force for the achievement of life goals, but it was higher for a cohort of young adults than for a cohort of aging generations. This is partly attributed to the fact that mature adults have already achieved their life goals and subsequently set smaller tasks to achieve before quitting. (Cicirelli, 2001). Thus, although death as a motivational force declines as life progresses, it is still a contributing factor to the individual's goal-directed behavior throughout life. Morrie supported this, saying that understanding what it means to die leads to living a better life.