It is perhaps a universal – and rather frustrating – truth with which you open your piece: household maintenance work is completely invisible until you stop doing it. It is a very thankless dynamic to which we are all subject.

Regarding your central point, the contrast you draw is realistic. It is absurd and contradictory that, as a society, we are so conditioned to be scandalised by human nudity — something entirely natural and fundamental — yet at the same time we normalise and justify war or destruction for economic interests. That false puritanism and the obsession with sexualising a naked body (even in a relaxing setting such as a sauna) speak more to collective psychological damage and immaturity than to true morality.

To answer your final question, I have certainly experienced a genuine wood-fired sauna – perhaps not in the Finnish style – but I suppose that after the physical, silent labour of clearing out that whole cellar, the heat and the mental disengagement are more than justified. Blessings to the whole family.