The second one
Because if you can do live by that you can do that bye-bye
is that the speaker is confronted with this fork in the road and must make a choice as to which road to take.
It might be said that his answer was "love". the idea of love is pretty much associated with family. Morrie seems to enjoy physical closeness and a strong need for affection. He argues that family is "one´s foundation" and the love and care a family can provide is extremity valuable for a person. While quoting Auden (his favourite writer) he said "love or perish"
