A study in the journal Emotion, S. Katherine Nelson, Kristin Layous, Steven Cole and Sonja Lyubomirsky randomly assigned people to spend four weeks doing kind acts for others, for themselves or for the world, or simply tracking their days. Those who did kind acts for others showed bigger increases in psychological flourishing and positive emotions afterward. In other words, giving made people happier than treating themselves did. These 10 stories are about that: an older man in a parking lot at 2am who told a nervous teenager how far he’d come, a teacher who stayed after school with a driver’s manual until a 16-year-old could read it, and a landlady who showed up every Sunday with a casserole. With the holidays close, it’s a good week to pick one person to treat