The following story appeared in my local paper this morning in the daily column "Character Counts" which is authored by Michael Josephson:

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By Michael Josephson
December 28, 2005

One of my favorite stories tells of a man I'll call Al who was rushing home excited to tell his wife about a $1,000 bonus check he'd unexpectedly received from work.

Before he got to his car, a desperately sad looking woman with a baby asked him for a few dollars. She said her child had leukemia and was dying. He reached into his pocket for some loose bills and accidentally pulled out his bonus check. He looked at the check for a moment and then at the woman's baby and spontaneously endorsed it to her, saying, "Use this to do what you can for your baby."

When Al told his family what he did, they were not pleased. His wife said, "I can't believe you gave some stranger our money," and his teenage son chided Al for being naive. Al was hurt but simply said, "I just thought she needed it so much more than we did."

A week later, his son came to him with an "I told you so" look on his face. He showed Al a newspaper article about a woman with a baby who had been arrested for scamming people in the area.

"This is the lady you gave the money to, isn't it?" the son asked disdainfully.

"Yes," the father replied, as he smiled broadly.

"What are you smiling about?" the son demanded. "You were cheated! She made a fool out of you."

"Don't you see?" Al replied: "This is wonderful news. It means the baby is not dying."

Overwhelmed with affection and admiration for her husband, Al's wife said: "Your dad will earn other bonuses. Just be thankful we have each other, our health and a truly good man we can all be proud of."
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After reading this I was overcome by emotion for reasons I've been seeking throughout the day, and what I've come up with is this...The spirit of the current season, at least what it's suppose to be all about, was contained in this short story of a man leading with his heart and not his fear. He realized all the money in the world is worthless if we disregard truth when it collides with our wants. The woman may have been a scam artist, but the truth of the moment as far as the man saw it through the portals of his heart was far greater than anything he would have purchased with his bonus. May we all have the good fortune to recognize our own "truths" in a more regular fashion this coming year!