Equal
by AnnaLiisa · 18 June 2026 · Biography & Memoir
The sauna is the one place nobody performs anything — everyone equally undignified. Anna-Liisa goes with her sister on Fridays. Last week her sister asked if she'd stay in Tampere. Probably. Okay. Twenty more minutes of silence. That was enough of a conversation.
The Finnish sauna is not something I can explain fully to people who haven't been in one. I can describe the temperature and the humidity and the birch branches and the way you pour water on the stones, and none of that captures it.
What I can say is this: it's the one place in Finland where nobody is performing anything. The steam is too hot for it. You can't maintain a professional manner or a social manner or really any manner at all. You sit and you sweat and everyone in there is equally undignified, which is the closest thing to equality I know.
I go with my sister on Friday evenings when my son is at his father's. We don't talk much. We sit and sweat and sometimes one of us says something and the other considers it for a while before responding, which outside the sauna would seem strange and inside it seems completely normal.
Last week she said: do you think you'll stay in Tampere? I thought about it. I said probably. She said okay. We sat for another twenty minutes. That was enough of a conversation.
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