This holiday season the American Humanist Association — an atheistic organization — is running an ad campaign in Washington, D.C., to counter the Christian and theistic message of Christmas. Metro buses bear signs that read: “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake.”

I lost my Uncle Bill recently, and seeing him pass is like watching a pole star fade from my sky. Bill was one of several fixed points — people of excellent character — that helped me to navigate my early years and chart the course of my life.

When I was at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the campus mall, which opened onto Madison’s State Street, attracted not a few colorful characters. There were street musicians and jugglers, and people peddling political agendas.

Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the age of 47. By the time of diagnosis, the cancer had usurped his liver, and his doctors thus gave him only months of relatively good health before the disease would begin to take its full effect.