“…the best portion of a good person’s life is the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.“
Last week in a seminar, a student asked what might the world be like if we were all just 10% kinder, more humble, more generous, more grateful? What if we were all 10% better humans? The question was a response to the unattainability of many moral exemplars. It was also a question about change at scale. If we aspire to a more just and equitable world where the human dignity of all is affirmed, are we better off with several more Mother Theresas or millions more who commit to be 10% better? While coming a bit close to effective altruism for my liking, I found the notion more than a bit compelling.
It also reminded me of the breakaway literary hit of 2025: Theo of Golden by first-time novelist Allen Levi. Levi is a singer/songwriter who first self-published the book in 2023, writing it to “see if he could.” The novel tells the story of an enigmatic, elderly Portuguese man who appears in a small Southern town. He purchases 92 pencil portraits from a coffee shop so he can anonymously gift them to their subjects. It is a heartwarming story of encounter that just barely avoids feeling saccharin. But it does avoid it. Put differently, it makes you feel good, hopeful about the world without being a feel-good novel. Levi demonstrates the transformative power of being seen/heard and how individual and community change are deeply and inextricably tied to intrinsic relationships. It reminds us that pursuing the good life is not a solo sport but is done in relationships of care and trust.
The novel also provides an interesting reflection on joy—apropos of the upcoming Virtues & Vocations Spring 2026 magazine. Joy for Levi is tied to the sharing of sorrow and the ability to act as if a moment beyond sorrow is always possible. As the different characters encounter this mysterious stranger, their lives are changed by his generosity, and new possibilities never thought possible emerge.
Theo of Golden is a lovely, quick read that will make even the most cynical amongst us hopeful. It also packs some of the best one-liners of any book I’ve read this year. Maybe that’s Levi’s songwriter past coming through.