January 2022 – THE SCOTT LANGDON PROJECT

Dispatches from the Borough: Here’s a #shortvideo for YOU!

#shorts

Hello, fellow travelers, it’s Scott, and welcome to this present moment!

Probably the most self-flagellating and destructive practice we engage in is the belief that when things are going well with us, that means our individual value is high…

And when things are not going well, our individual value is low and we’re terrible people, because…well…look at the hard times I mean, if times suck for me, right now, that must mean it’s because I suck, right??

We are not your thoughts, feelings, perceptions, or ideas. We have them and are 100 % responsible for what we do with them and their effect on the lives of others.

And yet, they change.

The essential nature of who you are… The breath within your breath… That is unchanging.

Rest in that for just this moment.

You are always the most precious of all the diamonds, no matter how much you might think your value fluctuates.

It never does.

YOU ARE LOVED ALWAYS!

Stay with us!

#staywithus

A Bridge Kind of Faith

Burlington – Bristol Bridge, connecting PA to NJ (1/22/22)

On Wednesday, January 12, 2022, I found out (in a rather bizarre way, I have to say) that I had just lost another contract due to Covid-19.

So, that made a grand total loss so far of… (Let’s see…carry the one…)

$37,500 in “booked work” since March of 2020 when our industry first got shut down.

(I only mention the number to stress how “touch and go” it is for many of us in the arts industry right now. It has certainly been difficult for everyone, and I know many have lost much more than I have. Please, support the arts when and where you can?)

I still haven’t seen any of that money and, since I didn’t qualify for unemployment because of the way Pennsylvania’s unemployment system calculates one’s worth, Sarah and I had to patch together a living during this global pandemic via whatever might come our way.

It turned out to be an amazing adventure in faith. I mean, what other choice did (do) we have?

Last weekend, Watson and I found ourselves lying on the couch, doing nothing while Sarah was at work. Nothing too unusual.

So, we start watching TV (also, not unusual), and we decide to watch our favorite Indiana Jones movie – “The Last Crusade.”

WATSON: SPOILERS!!
ME: Thank you, Watson. I’m not sure you had to be that loud but thank you.
WATSON: I just wanted to remind you to let people know you were going to play a clip from the movie, and it would contain spoilers. Am I wrong about that?
ME: No, you’re not wrong. You’re just loud.
(Pause)
WATSON: I’m passionate!
ME: Passionate. Right.

(SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t seen “Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade” well, first of all… and second of all, if you decide to read further, I’m afraid I can no longer refrain from giving away the ending. So…choose wisely…)

Anywho…

We get to the part where they’re in that lost city place…

WATSON: Alexandretta.
ME: Thank you.

When we get to the part where they’re in Alexandretta, and Indy’s got to somehow get to the other side of this huge ravine to get the grail (THE GRAIL!!) and save his dad, Sean Connery, this happens…

WATSON: I always hold my breath until the last second!
ME: I know, right!?

Watch it again and notice how, when the camera angle shifts, we see what Indy couldn’t see from his angle – the bridge was always there!

The bridge didn’t “appear” where there wasn’t a bridge just because he had the faith to step out. The bridge was always there, always right underneath his feet.

Remember, though, that neither Indiana Jones nor anyone else who might have attempted to venture further, was ever going to be able to see the angle that revealed the bridge’s presence until he stepped out. There was no way to see it from where he was standing.

His faith became a trust in something he knew he would not see until steps were taken, but he took that first step anyway.

Give yourself permission to not have your first angle of vision be your ONLY angle of vision.

His faith was grounded in a knowing – not only that there would be a bridge but also that he would have to step out in order to cross over and claim the healing power that always restores you when you drink of it.

Sometimes, life seems to be that way, doesn’t it? I know it does for me.

Sometimes, the cavern can seem bottomless and the ravine way, way, way too wide to dare even dream of life on the other side.

But, there is always a bridge underneath your feet and, believe it or not, it is most assuredly always there when you think you just can’t see it, no matter how hard you try.

It wouldn’t ever be a “leap of faith” if we could always see what landing was going to look like.

But do rest assured, my dear fellow traveler, that you will always land, and if you are still and quiet, you will see all of the help and aid and comfort available to you at all times, especially if the landing is super hard.

(Or, if you prefer to talk about it this way…)

“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sew nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” – JC

Could we have used that contract I just lost? Most certainly.

Could we have used all of that 37.5 Grand? Hell yes!!

Can I do anything about what I’ve lost? No.

But, I can take a step forward…and then another…and then another one after that…

I’m not sure what lies ahead, but I am convinced it’s something exciting and way better than what got canceled. Why am I convinced of that?

Because God has proven to be so incredibly faithful in spite of everything that seems to be occurring. And, also because I choose to look at it from that angle.

I choose it.

My joy and my peace are under my control because I know there is always a bridge right underneath my feet, especially when I can’t see it.

I wish you the peace that passes understanding.

I’ll talk to you later.

Peace

A Wilson Ave Porch

Bristol Borough, PA – Sunrise – Delaware River 1/16/22

SORTING through some video I’ve shot over the last couple of years, I realized I had shot several versions of the same scene from my front porch during the course of the pandemic.

I set some of them to music and posted a few of them, including the one below:

There were other clips I didn’t use. None of them had been thought out or planned, so many became manufactured and just didn’t work.

For some reason, I saved them.

Looking at them again – the ones that didn’t work – I saw they were never going to work, and I deleted them.

I had needed them in order to find the clips that worked for what I wanted to say at the time, but now that I’d found those, these “cutting room floor” clips no longer served a purpose.

WATSON: Like I said, There’s no need to keep looking at them. They served their purpose.
ME: And you were exactly right! Which is why I thanked them for their service and moved them to the trash folder.

(Pause)
WATSON: Did you empty the trash folder?
ME: Um…I…
WATSON: Maybe something to think about?
ME: That’s fair. I’ll look at that.
WATSON: Have you seen that little bone I buried?
ME: Check the couch.
WATSON: Right! The couch. Thanks.

In each of the video clips, at the time, I was just standing on my porch, looking left and right when I decided, for some reason, to film what I was seeing with my iPhone (Thank you Steve Jobs and Tim Apple! 😉 ).

What occurred to me when I looked back to them was how the scene was always the same and, at the same time, was always different.

The space was always the same, but what was happening in the space was always changing.

Sometimes it was snowing.

Sometimes raining. Sometimes flooding.

Sometimes it was sunny.

And no matter how many days it would rain or snow or flood, the sun would always return.