🎄 I hope this enhances your holiday spirit…

🎄’Tis the season. This truly is a magical time of year, filled with stories of kindness, generosity, selflessness, and caring.

Last Christmas Eve, four-year-old Wallace Frazier was released from the hospital. The next day, on Christmas, his battle with cancer required that he return. Thankfully, things are looking much different this time around.

Wallace is in remission, and thanks to Make-A-Wish, he and his family are set to enjoy a surprise trip to Disney. Wallace’s mother, tearful in recalling the challenging holidays of the past, calls it a “holiday do-over.” For a family that’s been through unimaginably hard times, it should make for the most magical Christmas imaginable.

Make-A-Wish aren’t the only ones offering good tidings.

13-year-old Lennox Brown told his grandmother that he doesn’t want a birthday present this year. Instead, he wants to buy a bike as a Christmas present for a child in need. Maybe that sounds like a pedestrian gesture. But it shows incredible maturity for a 13-year-old to recognize that while he doesn’t need some special present, a present can make a world of difference to someone who is in need. Thanks to Lennox’s kindness, a child will wake up on Christmas morning filled with delight to see that Santa has arrived. He just won’t know that Santa is actually a generous and caring boy.

And the fun isn’t limited to children.

In Wisconsin, a local business surprised a U.S. National Guard veteran named Christopher Bagwell with a donation of red, white, and blue holiday lights. Bagwell endured some challenging times after returning from an overseas deployment, losing a job while dealing with PTSD. He called the gesture the “coming home [he] didn’t get,” reacting emotionally as he watched the team from Swimming Pool Services put up the lights. Their nightly glow will offer a warm reminder of a community that cares.

As anyone in charge of the exterior illumination knows, the stress of putting up the lights tests even the strongest psyches. From the knots…

…to the precarious situations…

…to the inexplicable failures.

We can see why Bagwell was emotional at the gesture.

🧬 Smell ya later, sickle cell. Sometimes we revel in incredible innovations but wonder when their tangible impact might be felt. No doubt, when the gene-editing tool CRISPR was invented a few years back, we would’ve written about its immense potential, but it might have been fair to wonder when it would improve lives and eradicate disease.

The wait didn’t last long.

On Friday, the FDA approved a game-changing treatment for sickle cell disease that uses CRISPR. Previously, treatment for sickle cell relied on bone marrow transplants. Finding a match is challenging, and a patient’s immune system may reject the transplant. But the new treatment, Casgevy, edits a patient’s DNA to remove the disease-causing gene.

Of 30 people in the clinical trial who had at least 18 months of follow-up care, 29 experienced success from the treatment, reporting relief from chronic pain and fatigue. There remain unknowns about long-term effects, and the cost is prohibitive at $2.2 million per patient.

Still, the rapid progress from breakthrough discovery to impactful treatment is incredibly encouraging, especially when innovations and breakthroughs are occurring at breakneck paces. What could be CRISPR and more refreshing than that?

💸 Frugality pays off. Terry Kahn was “unbelievably frugal.” For 30 years, he worked for the Veterans Administration in Indianapolis and lived modestly. He didn’t own a cellphone because of the cost, and he wanted no money spent on his obituary when he passed in 2021.

By the time he died, he had amassed a $13 million estate. With no immediate family, he directed all of the funds to charity. One problem: he didn’t say which ones. He just said charity.

Now, attorney Dwayne Isaacs, the executor of the estate, is tasked with choosing the beneficiaries of Kahn’s fortune. For years, he’s called nonprofits across the Indianapolis area, often met on the other end of the phone with disbelief and suspicion. But once the nonprofit employees have temporarily suspended their disbelief, they’ve discovered that the offer is indeed bonafide.

Among the beneficiaries is Teacher’s Treasures, an organization that supplies educators with school supplies. They received $1.5 million, double their annual budget and an amount that renders the organization “forever changed.” It’s all because of one man, his frugality in life, and his immense generosity in death.

Terry Kahn was effectively Ebenezer Scrooge’s exact opposite, pinching pennies not for self-indulgence or greed but for causes that might make better use of them.

🙏 RIP Shane. Last week, Shane McGowan, the frontman for punk band The Pogues, passed away aged 65. The Irish icon’s death prompted waves of mourning worldwide, particularly in his native country. His funeral, though, was no somber affair.

The ceremony closed with a performance of his song, “Fairytale of New York,” that could only be described as a triumphant and heartfelt celebration of life, complete with dancing in the aisles. While we’d all welcome a few tears shed on our behalf, perhaps it’s this type of funeral we should aspire to - the celebration of a life well lived. It’s a reminder that when all is said and done, our lives should be remembered with joy, and while our loss should be mourned, hopefully we can leave an impact that inspires smiles and feeling.

Sorry to make everyone consider their mortality on a Monday morning, but it doesn’t hurt every once in awhile, right?

🖼️ An icon restored, overrated or not. Every year, about 10 million people gather around the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris. Estimates I made up just now suggest 90% of those people don’t get close enough to admire the world’s most famous painting and walk away underwhelmed at its humbler-than-expected size. Nonetheless, Mona Lisa remains one of the great global treasures of culture, but that wasn’t always the case.

In fact, Da Vinci’s masterpiece wasn’t even particularly popular until 1911, when it was stolen by an Italian “patriot” who believed the work should reside in Italy. The theft launched the painting to global infamy, and it remained missing for three years. It was on this day in 1914 that Mona Lisa was finally recovered, returning to its home at the Louvre weeks later.

Thank goodness it was. Whatever your opinion of Mona Lisa (here’s a controversial one), art is the connective thread through generations of mankind, allowing us to understand the experiences of our predecessors and the shared humanity at the core of those experiences. Losing masterworks is tragic, like watching the spire of Notre Dame surrender to flames. It’s the same reason Ben Gates stole the Declaration of Independence: to protect the Declaration of Independence. If only he was around back in 1911.

🚗 High school heroics. Bridgette Ponson was leaving Layton Christian Academy in Utah with her two young children when they were hit by a reversing vehicle and pinned underneath it. Ponson’s screams quickly attracted nearby high school students, with a group of about 20 converging on the car. The teenagers surrounded the car until they were able to successfully lift it high enough to free the trapped young family underneath.

After medical care and surgeries for Ponson, all are expected to be okay. Hill Air Force Base senior airman Dominique Childress, who helped with the lift, hailed the heroism of the teenagers in a harrowing situation:

Never underestimate the strength of youth collectively focused on doing the right thing.

🚴‍♂️ Look Ma, no hands. Growing up, there were the kids that could ride their bike with no hands….and then there was me. They made it look easy, I made it look like riding a unicycle blindfolded after drinking too much. Every time I summoned the courage to remove my hands from the handlebars, I lasted about two rotations of the pedals before the slightest wobble drew my hands back to safety like cracked-out moths to a flame.

Robert Murray is built different. The Canadian cyclist recently set the world record for the longest distance covered while riding a bicycle hands-free, traveling nearly 81 miles. 81 miles! 81 feet would’ve been impressive. Now you’re just running up the score, pal. Quit hot doggin’ it.

He completed the feat to raise funds for the Alzheimer’s Society of Calgary. I guess he’s okay by us.

☔️ It’s raining toys. Every year around the holidays, communities come together to support those in need. It’s not often, though, that we get the pleasure of seeing that community amassed in one location, its impact proudly displayed in celebration.

It’s what makes the annual toy donation at Real Betis in Spain one of the great traditions in all of sport. When that magic moment arrives, toys fly from all angles of the stadium towards the pitch, forming a swarm of nosediving generosity. Thousands of stuffed animals pile on the field like players celebrating a last gasp match-winner, delighting the fans in that moment and then many happy children on Christmas morning.

Sports allow us to unite around a common interest on the field, but they’re even more powerful when they unite us around causes in our shared communities.

🏈 Who sings second? Army-Navy is one of the purest competitions left in American sports. It’s a battle fought solely for pride in a fierce rivalry built on a foundation of immense respect. In an era where collegiate athletics are increasingly mercenary and commercial, these young men make long-term commitments not just to their schools but to their country. The opponents are united in their futures - as teammates in the armed forces - but divided for one day by their profound pride in their respective service academies.

Only an event like this could inspire football-geek and Navy fan Bill Belichick to showcase his infrequently seen goofy side.

The game was a rousing contest that ultimately came down to a one yard push in the trenches, with Army emerging victorious once again. At the game’s end, the symbolism of togetherness is evoked by the singing of the schools’ alma-maters. The right to sing second is the day’s prize, and watching the victor sing is a goosebump-inducing experience that underscores the game’s meaning.

🏀 Bronny’s back. Few have lived up to impossible expectations like LeBron James. Hailed as the next Michael Jordan since he was in high school, LeBron entered the NBA and spent two decades as one of its very best players, cementing himself as one of the two best players of all time in the process. And he did it with no real off-court issues to speak of. His career borders on miraculous.

The only person to deal with expectations quite as unfair might be his son, Bronny James. But like his dad, Bronny has largely lived up to those expectations, becoming a legitimately heralded basketball recruit and earning the chance to play at USC. And then, that bright future was threatened in an instant. This summer, Bronny collapsed on the court in practice, going into cardiac arrest.

Thanks to the quick work of medical staff, he survived.

This weekend, the path to that bright future resumed, as Bronny made his USC debut in front of an expectant crowd. While the appearance was modest in output, he channeled one of his dad’s signature moves with a chase-down block, showcasing athleticism that seems out of place in a body whose heart stopped beating just months ago. This debut may have never happened - that it did at all is cause for celebration.

Nothing is guaranteed in life, and tomorrow - no matter how bright it looks - isn’t promised. Savor the moments of joy, and more practically speaking, consider getting CPR certified. You could rescue a bright future.