Garrison Keillor has a ridiculous song, the silliest song he sings. Called, "The Finn That Would Not Take A Sauna", it has a happy conclusion. Won't spoil your delight; the song is found on YouTube. I have enjoyed a sauna every morning this week, and driving through Main Street Calumet, I found a store that sold sauna stoves, and I smiled. I am hardly the chap Keillor has celebrated in song.
If one is determined to become native to the Keneenaw Peninsula, one begins by buying a lot of forest. Then one erects a sauna and lives in the sauna and builds a log cabin. My sauna friend was talkative this morning. He talked about his brother who had a bathroom with a sink and toilet and the sauna outside replaced the shower. The brother probably enjoyed a nearby lake or stream; after sitting in the 130 degree Fahrenheit heat, one cools off with a polar plunge. Cardio and upper body exercise provided by chopping through the ice with an axe.
Visit Kentucky and every mansion has a small log cabin upon the bluegrass lawn. Stephen Foster wrote a song, "My Old Kentucky Home" in 1852 that celebrated these log cabins. If a Kentucky family didn't have one for the bluegrass lawn, a cabin was found in the woods abandoned and hauled and installed. In Keneewaw, there's the old Copper Country Sauna.
I have grown to crave my morning sauna. The sauna friend has the stones piping hot, kept hot by waterproof electric coils. I hear him filling his pail from the pump and the poof whoosh as the water vaporizes in the column of rocks. Before I take my perch, he splashes the birch wood bench so sitting down doesn't burn. After emerging from the sauna, a cold shower seals in the effect. I have remarked every day how the sauna chases out the chill of the night and then cloaks me in a garment that resists the cold, as close fitting as a birthday suit.
"Saunaparadies Stonehenge Keltenthron-Sauna Aufguss Fahne" by Therme Erding. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 de via Commons -
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