The English Victorian novelist George Eliot was famous for her ability to hit the psychological nail on the head with an apposite sentence. Here’s one of them :

We walk about “well-wadded with stupidity. … If we had but keen vision and feeling … it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence”.

A very happy New Year to all our readers.

Kansas City residents tried for 26 years, unsuccessfully, to identify their Secret Santa, who turned out to be Larry Stewart, a wealthy 58 year old business man. Larry’s handouts of $100 bills to people down on their luck - came from a personal experience when his own luck ran out and he ended up living in a car.

Check out the stories at CBC Radio and Staulkvalley.com to see how it all started when Larry lost his job and stopped into a diner for breakfast after two days without food. He claimed to have lost his wallet when the check came. Suddenly the diner’s owner came to his table, stuffed a $20 in Larry’s hand, and asked… “Drop this?”

In 1979, and after he’d landed work, Larry handed a young waitress a $20 at a car hop and her tears of gratitude “almost ripped his heart out,” he told reporters 26 years later. The serotonin that shot through Larry’s brain through that handout - brought him to the bank for $200 in $5s and $20s, and the Secret Santa drove around looking for people who could use a break.

Eventually reporters caught up, and Larry had them swear to keep his anonymity, through what amounted to handouts that totaled $1.3 million - to strangers in need during Decembers. The neuro and cognitive sciences tell that whenever we give to others unconditionally, we increase the serotonin hormone for well-being in our own brains.

An organic neurotransmitter, serotonin enhances our health, holds back stress, raises the immune system, as well as helps memory, moods and sleep. What’s equally as impressive, those who observe or receive our kindness,  often experience similar shots of serotonin that bring that added euphoria.

After 26 years of serotonin benefits, this year Larry faces a recent diagnosis of cancer and he decided to tell his story as a way to inspire others to give when he is gone. His life inspires us to try a few random acts of kindness of our own over this holiday season.

I think I’ll  adopt Larry’s  anonymity and mix in my own creativity- because the Secret Santa  showed how serotonin, and holiday handouts  - bring their own unique rewards. How about you?