Hi friends, this email was written by my late friend Anne (1943-2010) who I worked with at the Greenwood Fred Meyer in North Seattle for years. I post it every year to remember her. Please share and remember my friend Anne.
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Greetings from the Woolly Mammoth God, and his representative on earth, Anne Gilbert!
From: ANNE V. GILBERT
Sent: Friday, November 17, 2000 11:48 PM
To all:
Greetings from the Woolly Mammoth God, and his representative on earth, Anne Gilbert!
November 18 is a significant day in the Northern Hemisphere (and in the Southern also, but for different reason). Why is it significant? It is the day the sun sets in Barrow, Alaska. The sun will not rise again for 64 days. Out on the tundra, the moon will rise and set, rise and set, the Northern Lights will flame into a rainbow of colors, and the wolves will howl beneath the stars. Human beings will huddle in their dwellings and watch the Northern Lights flicker and flame.
Farther south, the dark and the rain and the cold will close in. The sun will rise and set each day, but between November 18 and January 24, dark, dreary, cold, enlivened, or perhaps threatened, by an occasional snow, will set in. In wild places, trees will be bare, the ground frozen, and life will be hard for the wild inhabitants of forest and plain. Humans will be subject to colds and flu, and their misery will spread with the dark, shortened days.
But all will not be misery, at least in the Northern Hemisphere, for it will be a time of celebration as well. With the lessening of the sunlight, will come the turning on of many-colored lights on houses and Christmas trees and whatever surface is flat enough to string a wire. People will gather together (in the US, at least) to visit and pass the time with family and friends on Thanksgiving, perhaps really to give thanks for the blessings they may have received throughout the year. There will be other winter holidays too, occasions for visits and celebrations with family and friends: Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, the winter solstice, New Years. Yes, trees will be bare and the ground either soggy or frozen, depending on where one is, but there will also be joy and companionship for many. And yes, there will be time for reflection as well.
The same is true, in reverse, for those living in the Southern Hemisphere. These same 64 days will bring an increase in light and heat, and the return of outdoor activities and pleasures. Those of you in the Southern Hemisphere lucky enough to live near a beach will doubtless spend time there doing something pleasurable with family and friends. Others might plant a garden and watch it grow and flower. Perhaps there will be long walks in the mild, ambient air, underneath a beneficent sun. Those of you living in the Southern Hemisphere may not have to worry about colds and flu, but there will, of course, be such problems as sunburn and the hole in the ozone layer, but the many of the holidays celebrated in the Northern Hemisphere are also celebrated in the Southern, and again, these are times for renewal of friendship, companionship, exchanging of news, and just plain merriment. Here too, there will be time for reflection.
What Should people in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere reflect upon, asks the Woolly Mammoth God?
The most important thing is, that all seasons are times of change. In the depths of winter, there is always the hope of spring, and leaves budding, flowers poking their green leaves and buds out of the cold earth, of birds returning once again to sing, set up territories, mate, and raise young of their kind. There is always the hope of renewal, even in the depths of darkness. In the Southern Hemisphere, the reflection will take the opposite course: that all the sunshine and light are finite, and changing, as the world inevitably turns its endless cycle. The plants will fade and sleep, and the cold, the rain, the shortened days and perhaps the misery, will come again, to be followed in their inevitable course by the distant spring. For, wherever you are, there is always change and renewal.
And, for all of us, Northern and Southern Hemisphere inhabitants, in the midst of festivity and merriment, we are, ultimately alone, in our own skins, no matter how close our companions, no matter how much they are willing to share with us. By the same token, when we are alone, the memories of past companionship give us comfort, and the promise that there will be other times when we will not be alone. Times change, times stay the same, and there is always the knowledge that in the midst of joy, some sorrow is inevitable, and in the midst of sorrow, there will be joy, just as a rainbow promises the end of the most terrible thunderstorms.
The sun will set in Barrow, Alaska on November 18, and it will rise again on January 24, as it always does. For darkness and light are always intertwined, as are joy and sorrow, life, death, and the seasons. In the depths of darkness, there is always time for reflection, and a ray of light will shine.
And so, the Woolly Mammoth God, and his representative on earth bid you farewell for the moment, leaving, it is hoped, ample room for reflection.
Anne Gilbert, Representative to the Woolly Mammoth God
Ruth Oskolkoff's Weblog 
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