On sauna

I don't remember my first sauna. I remember my parents telling me that, when I was two, I used to sit in a tub of water on the bottom step of the sauna bench. They told the story often enough that it seems like a memory.
I was thinking about this as I lit the fire in the sauna stove last night. A lot of things, of course, change. This isn't the same sauna stove that I first lit back when I was in single digits, but it is one that my father built. The interior of the sauna is also new, probably only 30 or so years old. My father replaced the old paneling (spruce, maybe) with poplar. The bench is about the same vintage. The original bench was bolted together and the heads of the bolts branded each visitor.
Enough is the same, however, that the sauna and the rituals around it become the reference line for all that's gone on.
Don't ask a  Finn about sauna unless you've got time for the answer. You'll get a response that is reverent beyond religious, drifts through poetry, doubles back into physiology, the art of war, and motherhood until it settles on a far-away gaze that's focused deep in the northern sky.
The basics are these:

• A temperature of 180F is the minimum, with higher temps according to taste. Our thermometer tops out at 200F and I've seen the needle well past that point. This isn't a competition, so find a good temperature.
  If you use a lot of very dry wood, particular pine or hemlock, you can get a fast, hot fire. It may be uncomfortable, however, because the radiant heat is sharp on the skin. Getting to the same temperature slowly by mixing in oak and maple will result in a more even feel to the heat.
  
• The lake water should be below 65F, but, this late in the season, you'll take what you can get.
  Yes, we've gone in through the ice and rolled in the snow. Friend Roger observed that the story is generally better than the experience.
  
• The use of bathing suits is dictated by your preference. If you choose to go without (and most do), kindly wait until it's dark enough so that you don't offend, scare, or amuse the neighbors.
  
• Three cycles of sitting, steam, and swim, with washing on the third cycle.
• A time of unspecified length (you'll know) to sit on the bench, looking over the lake, talking quietly, watching the planes on their flight path into Boston.
• If more people are taking sauna, be careful not to splash too much water around. Leave the sauna as hot as you found it, so add wood to the stove.

It's that simple. And, with most simple things, it's never that simple.

OntheCommon.com - A place for everything

OntheCommon.com: "I thought that I did pretty well, dropping that dead gray birch about 18' from the boathouse"

And how was work today, Daddy?

So, the guy walks into work and says, "Boss, I got a great idea. Let's change the color of the pull tab on the Alpo cans. Let's make them red."
"Great idea, Kyle. Go for it."
And Kyle went forth and made it so. And all the world rejoiced. And Kyle's children became well-adjusted, well-educated, and, most importantly, well-fed.