Films from Finland

One of the films at the upcoming international film festival in Minneapolis is "Forbidden Fruit," which was discussed on this blog awhile back. There are three other films from Finland. If you see any of the movies, please let us know what you think!

I Left the Laestadian Revival Movement . . .

I just found this essay online and am very eager to share it with you. It is by a Finnish woman from Ostrobothnia who left the Laestadian faith ten years ago. I hope she finds comfort and healing. I love her candor and sense a kindred spirit.

Here is an excerpt:

It was emphasised at services that it is not about rules, but rather the fact that a Laestadian wants to operate in a certain way. I recall how I preferred to speak about desires, rather than rules. I was pained to read newspaper articles about things that Laestadians “were not allowed to do”. The question was about what I wanted to do or to choose!
But whose desire was it really all about?
I was not asked what I wanted, or what I felt was important. For instance, the negative stance on birth control was taken in the late 1960s at a meeting of preachers, where only men were present.

I knew already at the age of 13 that I did not want to be the mother of a big family. It was not until I was over the age of 20 that I said out loud that I cannot stand the idea of a big family. My friends answered that “you can’t know in advance what it will be like”.
I was supposed to simply trust that God would give me exactly the right number of children, even if I did not use birth control.
I knew that my mind could not handle such an experiment. I simply did not want to become pregnant reluctantly. My thoughts did not find resonance, because they resounded with the voice of reason, not that of faith.

Some felt that faith is that people are encouraged to push their reason aside in big matters. For me rejecting reason would have been an abandonment of my own psyche.
I was not ready to bend at all in the birth control question, or to hide my opinions. The security of the Laestadian community began to turn into insecurity.

Where Do Finns Come From?

My cousin sent me this fascinating tip regarding Finnish origins. Now I'm eager to get my DNA tested, just to find out what it can tell me. Have you done that or pondered it?


Here's an excerpt. Read more by clicking on the title.

WHERE DO FINNS COME FROM?

Not long ago, cytogenetic experts stirred up a controversy with their "ground-breaking" findings on the origins of the Finnish and Sami peoples. Cytogenetics is by no means a new tool in bioanthropological research, however. As early as the 1960s and '70s, Finnish researchers made the significant discovery that one quarter of the Finns' genetic stock is Siberian, and three quarters is European in origin. The Samis, however, are of different genetic stock: a mixture of distinctly western, but also eastern elements. If we examine the genetic links between the peoples of Europe, the Samis form a separate group unto themselves, and other Uralic peoples, too have a distinctive genetic profile.

The Sacred Sauna

Growing up, Saturday night was sauna night. My father and five brothers (with help from me and mom) built an authentic Finnish sauna in the woods, with notched cedar logs and a wood stove, and a dressing room and an exercise area, and a shower room and cedar rounds leading up to the front door, and a map of Finland on the wall. Well maybe it wasn't authentic, but it was wonderful.

During the week we kids took turns chopping wood for the stove (I once split my big toenail in two with an errant axe) and on Saturday nights, the family took turns: guests, parents, girls, boys, usually in that order. I was the only girl, so it was a solitary affair unless relatives were visiting.

Lying on the cedar bench, I would listen to the crackling of the fire, the hooting of owls, the wind in the trees, and the hiss of steam as I ladled water on the rocks.

I could hear the crunch of gravel and creak of the exterior stove door as someone stoked the fire from outside. If the heat became too intense, I would shower and return. Sometimes I brought a book and read while the pages grew limp from steam. Eventually a brother's insistent knocking would end my reverie.

I learned how to be alone in that sauna, which was not easy for an extroverted adolescent girl. It was often lonely, a feeling I rarely encounter today.

Now, whenever I smell cedar, I am sent back to that state of lonely serenity. (Tea tree oil has the same effect, so I use a fancy pants hair conditioner for the scent).

While I would like someday to build a small sauna in my backyard, I make do with a less romantic version at the local gym. It is usually vacant on Sunday (one of the reasons I love my gym). After a good workout, I shower and take a swim in the quiet pool. After a soak in the hot tub, I finish my routine with a long sauna.

So last week I was surprised to find the sauna already occupied by an elderly man in running shorts and a dish towel draped over his head. He was facing a bench and doing knee bends, looking very serious and faintly ridiculous. I ignored him, took the top bench and closed my eyes.

When I opened them again, the man was frowning at me. In a thick accent, he said "one must MOOOVE to get benefit of the SAHna!" He made some bending motions.

I must have looked dumbstruck. You see, I am a nice person. I even look nice, the kind of person people are always stopping to ask for directions, or the time, or a spare dollar.

But this was really beyond the pale.

"Sir." I said. "YOU can't tell how to take a SOW-na. My people invented the sauna. I grew up in a sauna. I KNOW how to take a sauna. Maybe not a FRENCH sah-na, but a Finnish sauna."

But he was not deterred. Neither was he French. He went into great detail about his cardiovascular health and stamina, and whipped off his head towel to display proudly a full head of hair, suspiciously free of gray. He introduced himself as "Dr. John" and said he came here at age 18 from Roumania, and keeps up on all the American AND British medical journals, and knows what ails "you people" and it isn't just fast food and "quick carbos."

He stared pointedly at my middle-aged physique and said I should "stop the eating of milk."

I showed restraint. I did not demonstrate my newfound core strength (Nautilus-derived) and suspend him by his ankles, or his full head of hair. I did not MOOOVE a muscle. Nor did I tell him I am lactose-intolerant.

Instead I laughed and laughed and told him he was FUNNY. Then I quickly left the sauna, before the Devil got the upper hand.

But I may bring some birch branches next time.

That'll show him.

*****

Share your sauna stories!