The cell door is unlocked, but we have to push it open to go free and experience other places. If one cannot deny the recurrent experience of inadequacy, and it will not go away, perhaps Schwartz is right. The other alternative is to lean into it, live it fully, and then let it go. Second lesson Silence can be a gift. By the second interview, Schwartz was having increasing difficulty speaking.
Third lesson Join the human family.
Morrie Schwartz worried that our culture does not allow us to feel good about ourselves. Out of self-regard comes the ability to accept others. We have to learn to forgive ourselves and then forgive others. We have to raise our estimate about what we can be and do the same for others. So we exclude others, rather than attaching ourselves to and investing our lives in the human family.