[ 10.14.2002 ]
Sauna is good for one's health.
I know people from different cultural background may have presuppositions on the heated room where you go naked with strange people but these persuppositions are usually nothing but funny to a Finn. Yes, sex is good for you like sauna, too, but this doesn't mean that they have anything else in common. Or that they have anything at all to do with each other. Sure one/a pair/a company can have sex in sauna if he/she/they are in good shape (or the sauna is not heated over 50 centigrade - but that's not sauna anymore, I think, it's just a place that
can be used for a sauna - but isn't). But... unlike some italians I've met thought, finnish sauna has nothing to do with being sexually adventurous. Neither is it a place you go in with towel around you or in a swimsuit like some americans have mistaken (good grief - how can a person be in that bad crisis with him/herself being naked?). One takes his/her clothes off, takes a shower and goes to sauna, has an unspesified quantity of beer and does finnish smalltalk* with the others when crouching on the bench for the increasing heat.
Sauna isn't just good for one's health. Sauna just saved a persons life I happen to know.
There was a bomb hit around here just a few days ago. Six killed so far, something like 70 injured. Not really a terrorist strike, this guy was a rebel without a cause. He didn't blew himself (and the unlucky families at shopping mall) up by accident so it wasn't a suicide strike either in - say - Hamas'/IRA-style. It's bad enough when people choose sides and bomb homes of each other (for possibly reasons/reasonings of someone else, though this is adopted as own politicy) but this, this is something different. There's no sides to choose with this psychotic type, so one can't be safe from them ever. Nothing to be judged and interpreted as politics and social philosophy but rather clinical psychology.
Sometimes I really can't help but wonder what is it with people?
Anyhow, a friend of my was in sauna meanwhile the bomb did the lamentable and all too everyday thing. She had left the mall only something like thirty minutes earlier as she got bored and decided to rush for sauna.
* "Finnish smalltalk" is done in lines of maximum of five words, not spoken sooner than after at least 10 seconds the previous talkative person. Let's have a model conversation** of finns bathing sauna in agreement:
Person A, a talkative geezer :
"On se ilimoja pielly... [it's been quite a weather]"
*five seconds of silence*
Person A continues the sentence:
"...vaikka koko kesän sato. [though it rained all summer]"
*fifteen seconds of silence*
Person B, a normal, healthy and sane Finn:
"Onhan se. [indeed]"
*twenty seconds of silence, both take a sip of beer*
Person A:
"Tämä on hyvä sauna [this is a good sauna]
*twenty seconds of silence*
Person B:
"Niin on [so it is]"
*five seconds of silence*
Person A:
"Uudet lauteet ja kaikki... [new benches and all]"
*twenty seconds of silence*
Person B:
"...hienot onkin [and nice they are...]"
*five seconds of silence*
Person A:
"taidan lähteä tupakille..."
*ten seconds, A drinks his bottle empty*
Person B:
" Minä tuun mukaan [I'll join you]"
*empties his bottle, and both leave sauna*
Person A
:"Poltatko norttia ilman filtteriä?[smoke North states, no filter?]"
*offers the other guy a cigarette; person B. takes one and
NOTE 1: doesn't thank because some think it to be something you just don't do, thanking for a cigarette or a drink.*
Person B
:"Onko tulta? [got fire?]"
*NOTE 2: once outside sauna, people tend to get more talkative, as they're outside the "smalltalk" conventions of sauna after having something in common; so answers can be given immediately without a fear*
Person A
:"No totta mooses! [Does Pope have a funny hat?]
*lit cigarettes, open new bottles, belch and go back to sauna and enjoy some more smalltalk after watching the sunset*
Outlander does him/herself a favor by not explaining he's/she's not speaking Finninsh but just shuts his/her mouth tightly and stares the direction his/her nose points to, which is - in sauna - probably the floor. Actually, finnish "smalltalk" is a contradiction in itself, although it's certainly true that Finns might not talk a big time. Especially not in sauna, where anyone breaking the solemn and peaceful atmosphere by more than five words is likely to get thrown out. Especially in any Northern part of Finnland. You're lucky if you get out alive after speaking instead of drinking and that's the way it ought to be! But it's good for you, believe me.
Mr EagleOwl [10:40 AM]
