Boxing Day, 2021
Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated the day after Christmas Day, thus being the second day of Christmastide.[1] Though it originated as a holiday to give gifts to the poor, today Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday. [Wikipwedia].
Letter to the Editor
Stephen … Have there been any silverback encounters with the monolith that have been made public https://www.mynbc5.com/article/mysterious-monolith-found-atop-small-vermont-mountain/35033843# ?
The monolith, which has already disappeared, was found within several miles of Silverback Central, and is very likely an attempt by an advanced, alien culture to communicate directly with the Silverback Nation. If my sense of the vibrations they are sending is correct, their message is “The planet Earth is in danger. The only ones who can save it are the Silverbacks. Stay true in your sacred mission to lead the planet back to sanity and safety.”
“On the Day After Christmas” – A story and a song 1978
by Silverback Mike (Post Island Troop)
It was 1978. We, and our home, survived the legendary Blizzard. Disco was stayin’ alive, big time. Life was good indeed, personally and musically, especially since Joe, Lois, Bob and Robbie were safe after a harrowing Hull Gut boat capsize. A huge cosmic “Whew!”
For several years Cyndy and I had been planning a motor home trip across North America with our son Joe. Ours would be an upscale version of our friends David and Susan Haletky’s odyssey. They traveled in a tiny pull-trailer for 2 years and even had a baby while on the road! We rented out our home, sold our cars, took leaves from our jobs, and prepared our 24 foot El Dorado RV for an epic voyage. After a round of good bye concerts, parties, and cast off on our “Getting the Fun Out of the Way Tour.”
All along the way there were so many wonderful and moving personal, natural and historical experiences. Meanwhile in the “real world,” there were two cautionary man-made disasters: the alarming Three Mile Island Pennsylvania nuclear power plant near melt-down, and the Jim Jones-led cult mass suicide in Guyana, South America.
Many of the victims of this tragedy came from San Francisco, and the area was still reeling when we arrived two weeks before Christmas. We settled in with our generous and exotic friends Bob and Jim in their Juri Street apartment in the culturally-diverse Mission neighborhood. This was our first-ever Christmas away from our Quincy home and family, but we were feeling good about our new home. The trip across country had been very stimulating for my songwriting, and I started doing open mic performances, arranging little solo gigs, networking and researching how to produce an album (those giant, black vinyl CDs).
On Christmas Eve we attended an outdoor Joan Baez concert at City Hall, a memorial to the Jonestown victims. It was a candle lit sing-a-long of folk anthems and Christmas carols. The concert was a healing balm for the 25,000 there. A wave of good spread a measure of healing, hope, and peace to the wound-licking city.
We had a great Christmas Day celebration welcomed by new family and friends. We talked with everyone back home, where everyone was healthy and happy. All was calm and all was bright on all our beloved byways.
On the morning of the 26th I went for my daily run and was taken aback to see, amongst sad headlines on the newsstands, folks back to work and shopping, Christmas trees already out in the trash with ribbons on the ground! I ran back to the apartment and quickly wrote my only Christmas song, remembering the concert and hopes ahead…
On the Day After Christmas
On the day after Christmas everyone goes back to work.
There are trees on the sidewalk; there are ribbons in the dirt.
And the stores all reopen for their clearance and returns –
For the usual business it appears.
On the day after Christmas the headlines all read the same-
Someone is hurting someone in someone else’s name.
There is waste. There is wanting, and so many kinds of pain.
Is there ever a trace of true change?
On the Eve before Christmas, on the steps of City Hall,
25,000 voices rose in good will to all.
And they lifted their candles in salute to a dream-
Let this be the year we live in peace?
May this be the year we live in peace!
Live “ in heavenly peace”…
December 26 is also Saint Stephen’s, known as the Patron Saint of Silverbacks.
Thanks so much for sharing this song that I am reviving and which means so much to me.
Very grateful for all your effort, creativity and communicating- which is making living in the present jungle more civilized.
Thanks so much for sharing today my/our story and song from 1978, “On the Day After Christmas”.
It means so much to me and maybe to others.
Keep spreading the light!
Gratefully –
Mike