Over the past couple
of months I have finally taken on and completed a project I have thought 
And, in the process of building my sauna, I discovered
something that once eluded me but now seems so self-evidently clear…. Saunas
are not “built;” they are formed. Formed
out of the collective human labor of those who construct it, formed out of the
collective human sweat of those who bathe in its heat. Formed, because at its very essence, a sauna
is not a building or a room but instead, a community. And, more often than not, a community of men.
I didn’t understand
this until my friend Chris and I began to build, and I began to read a book he
loaned me, The Sauna, by Rob Roy. Yes, the book is all about the varieties of
construction methods employed to build these peculiar little places made sacred
by the Finns. But, behind all of the
details about cord wood, stone, sod, glass and cast iron and heat, the book is
really about a relationship that develops between the people and the space of
their creation…. and about the
relationships that develop out of that created space being shared.
This understanding was confirmed when I was then introduced
to a PBS documentary movie entitled Steam of Life . A couple of on-line film synopses:
:
From
a land of long, dark winters comes Steam of Life, a moody, comic and
moving study of Finnish men as framed by the national obsession with the sauna.
There, they come together to sweat out not only the grime of contemporary life,
but also their grief, hopes, joys and memories.
Both
physically and emotionally naked, the sweaty men talk in detail about their
experiences, their ambitions, their failings, their darkest secrets and biggest
fears, often with a few drinks handy to keep the conversation flowing. The
result is a film that offers a look into a unique side of Finnish culture as
well as an insight into the male psyche that's universal.
Could my sauna be a place such as this? Could such a space help even we American men to
reconnect to our common humanity, to our common destiny, and to each other? Perhaps, with this in mind, one of the film’s
viewers posted this comment: “May I suggest that Congress, the Senate, and the
Administration might benefit from taking weekly communal saunas.”
Amen……
