Stephen Langdon

There is a word my brother invented once, long ago, called “Stevish.” It describes a certain flair for materializing anything difficult, and I’m convinced others have it too.

It’s not so much a daily encounter with Murpy’s Law, although choosing the longest line in a grocery store is definitely one of my many knacks. It’s not Murphy’s cousin either, the “that could only happen to you” syndrome. It is more of a “Why in the world did you go and do that?” My defense is that it’s usually not a matter of choice – it’s just how the circumstances purposely unfolded. The silver lining is that events normally turn out well, like a cat falling out of a tree managing to land on its feet every time. I try to tell myself that it’s all “just an opportunity to grow spiritually,” but I’ve never succeeded in embracing struggle – I’ve just learned to work hard until I’m out of it.

An example is… well, my entire path in life. I took a common aptitude test in High School – the one that displays all your abilities and disabilities on a line graph. The peaks on the line showed all these likes and positives – while the valleys depicted the poor subjects, the things to avoid because of meager interest and aptitude. I had two big troughs – foreign language and Technical/computers.

So what happened? Somehow I ended up in Military Intelligence as a Korean Linguist for over twenty years. After retiring from the army I found my next career – computer software training to soldiers in the field and abroad. As my brother would be quick to say, “That was a very Stevish thing to do.”

Prior to all that I wandered quite a bit, especially during the early 70s. I spent a great deal of time getting lost on America’s highways and byways, working many odd jobs; farmhand, surveyor, Veterinarian assistant; I even lived in a commune under a large parachute. (Did you know that the hole in the center of a parachute makes for a splendid chimney?)

Somewhere around that time I drifted into Buddhism - was immersed, in fact. I led philosophical meetings, did a pilgrimage to the foot of Mt. Fuji. After that I dabbled in other spiritual pursuits. Then came the army where my disillusionment drove me into a state of hopeless Secular Humanism. It wasn’t until my return from years in Korea that I found myself wrestling with Christianity – which I never really ran toward – in fact I was running in the opposite direction until God ran me over like a big logging truck. My Christian conversion has found awe at every turn, with a special appreciation for Christian philosophy.

I have poked around in five different colleges over the years, filling transcripts with umpteen credits – but with only an Associate’s degree to show for it. The truth is my interests have never been in line with the majors and the minors. But I suppose I’m better for it. As my grandfather (a college dean) used to say, “An education is what’s left over after you’ve forgotten everything you learned.”

This story has been a long time coming, and I’m happy that it’s finally down in print. I’ve been telling stories since my childhood, (remember the line graph? - writing and speaking were the hilltops.) Anyway, it’s the stories that people recall when asked about me.
The events and setting of this story are from my childhood, although it depends on the memory being nudged. My brother tells me he’s heard a dozen versions of how I survived the arrow of ‘William Tell.’ (I often retort, “I thought you wanted a good story?” to which he replies, “I do, little brother – don’t ever change the way you change it.)

It is a novel after all. It began as a memoir, but I wanted to add a certain spiritual purpose – and not simply entertain. So I threw accuracy out the window and made up characters as needed to make the story worthwhile. And since the story leaves my lead character (in all his stevishness) at the ripe old age of 11 – you can be sure there will be sequels!

I currently reside in Lampasas, Texas, with my artist wife, Cassie, returning full circle to living in an old historical Victorian home.