if you’re not having fun, you may have a short-circuit somewhere in your inner-net*. . . .

One Family

Hum-dee-dum, tra-la, tra-la . . .
Now, where were we – oh, my gosh! Is it so late already? Almost eight years passed the twentieth century? How time does fly when you’re having fun.

When I was young, I earnestly believed that a pandemic of fun could save mankind. Funny – now that I think of it – I still do, although my outlook has become somewhat more refined. The youthful images of reckless abandon have been replaced by a majestic movie in which every person shines with a child’s countenance, bubbling with the champagne of wise innocence. In this age of global communication and friendship across all borders (let’s just ignore the racists, fundamentalists, fed-up-ists, megamerger-swallowtheworld-industrialist-capitalists and political-power-activists for the moment) we find the ideal setting for the kindergarten birthday party utopia, where care is no longer an ulcer-giving demon in the back of the mind, but a magical, benevolent whim that spontaneously brings luck to others. By ‘fun’, I’m of course referring to the stuff that shines from the pearl of joy, not its wannabe, temporary copy that sometimes emits from the fickle happiness/unhappiness coin. (More on that somewhere below: Just scroll down this site to investigate.)

Mount Saugstad (2908 meters)

Things were a lot different back in the days of my great-grandfather, Reverend Christian Saugstad. Not only were those guys bereft of Internet, I don’t think even fun had been invented yet! Imagine leading your followers over one-and-a-half thousand rugged miles to a new, puritan home in the wilderness (from Minnesota to British Columbia). That was hard work back in 1894; no jumbojet-getaway! But I’m sure they experienced something resembling fun after the men spent the first fall and winter on the freezing coast chopping trees, shoveling snow and building log cabins, and then all their wives and children ferried up from the capital in the spring thaw. Well, I guess if reincarnation is the norm, we all bin there; dun that. I ain’t sayin’ that the plastic smell of computers is more inspiring to collective understanding and integration than a five hundred year old cedar rainforest, but the invention of mass-communication terminals and networks have brought us a long way in appreciating each other. Old Rev. C. didn’t even want his people to marry non-Norwegians, not to mention Muslims, Hindus or Jews (although they did somehow manage to get in among the more enlightened aboriginals). first Bella Coola settlersHis son, my grandfather the sea captain, was more evolved in this respect. He brought home his bride from Devon after WW1, Norwegian or no. Why, she wasn’t even a conformed Christian. Surviving witnesses in the old Vancouver neighbourhood may still recall the public argument she had one day across the picket fence with Mr. Bible-Thumper next door, insisting that reincarnation of human beings is a natural and inevitable process (“and-you-can-jolly-well-put-that-in-your-pipe-and-smoke-it!”). And that was well before the New Age Revolution began in the sixties. Um . . . Grandma’s reincarnation> Devon> Sea captain> Indians> the old Rev.> . . . ah, yes – the Internet: It’s obvious to me, after twenty-five years of daily personal subjective, and international objective experience in Sahaja Yoga, that this new level of global communication is a result of an accelerated inner process of collective consciousness. Naturally, these deep, evolutionary, spiritually powerful, expanding awareness thingies do tend to find ways of manifesting appropriate tools, so it’s no wonder that super-fast, super-portable, super-affordable gadgets and systems have sprouted into common use for the greater goodness of getting everyone universally chummy. I’m also convinced (und ich wuerde meinen rechten Arm darauf verwetten) that as soon as all this evil and bullying and perversion and smug complacency has been played out, that wave of – yes, in your face – LOVE is going to wash over the stage, and we’ll be in for one hell-of-a (oops), I mean, one wonderful show!
You may sayyy I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one . . . And whatever desire you hold on to, is the direction you move toward. It seems we’re shifting into a whole new mode*.

(Stay tuned for further fun ‘n’ fascinating features . . .)

Now, I really must get back to my wood chopping. (I do find it fun!)

our Austrian blackberries

(And I truly do admire the seeking spirit of my fore-fathers/mothers, including my own parents, whose appetites for shared goodness and truth, in times of such pervading spiritual darkness, have been encouraging.)

out back in the Vienna Woods

.

~click on the gigantic stump to experience more~BellaCoola 1800s.

7 responses to “if you’re not having fun, you may have a short-circuit somewhere in your inner-net*. . . .

  1. nice dream you have.

    hope that will get its realization soon and negativities in the collective consciousness be washed away.

  2. Peter solhjell

    Hi Ed, just chanced upon your site while doing research on Christian Saugstad and man have you done a lot of soul searching. If you had come here to Bella Coola to live at 14 you would have found yourself long ago and saved a lot of time and travel in this peaceful valley that ol Rev. brought 72 (seventy two) of his congregation to.
    I’m forever thankful that he did and am just knowledeagable enough to realize that if he hadn’t I wouldn’t be here in this time and place.
    Did you know that ol Rev was quite poetic? I have some of his letters and have much more on him if you are interested. Are you descended from Randolph or Gunnar? your poetry is quite good.
    Peter

  3. Hi cousin Peter!
    That would be great if you could get some of that material to me. It’s funny – I just ran into another relation this summer who had ancient photos of the family in Bella Coola from the late 1800s. My grandfather’s name was Alf Godfrey.

  4. Jan Allan

    Hi Ed,

    I am the great grand-daughter of Christian Saugstad, so I guess we are related. I am trying to find out more about my family and I was fascinated to find your site. I also was very interested in seeing the input form Peter Solhjell and would like to contact him – do you have his email address?

  5. Pingback: Dad has moved on « Self-Help

  6. Hi. Just ran across your blog. Interesting! I am interested in Rev. Saugstad because he was the first minister at Trysil church in Holmes City two, Douglas Co MN. We have a website and there are 3 members of Christian’s family buried there. I have also been in contact with Peter Solhjell. My family connections began the colony of Quatsino at nearly the same time that Christian established his colony.

  7. Hi,
    Great to hear from you. If you’re on Facebook, you can send me a friend request (Edward Saugstad), and maybe one to another Saugstad (Ed Saugstad) who just posted this amazing photo from the 1800s:

    Best wishes,
    Ed

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