I like to make wooden furniture, continuous windsor arm chairs in particular. One of the skills that a novice chairmaker has to master is steam bending wood. On a continuous arm windsor, the distinctive arm bow is typically fashioned of white oak, a very strong species of North American hardwood, bent around a form and dried.
To bend white oak, a chairmaker forms an arm bow out of a green, undried piece of wood. The green arm bow is then placed in a steam box. Steam boxes are not available commercially to my knowledge, so part of the process of becoming a chairmaker involves designing and building your own steambox. Mine is an ugly plywood box powered by a wallpaper steamer. It looks bad but works great.
After cooking the arm bow in a steambox for about 40 minutes, the chairmaker removes the arm bow and places it in a form for bending. This is the most critical part of the creation process. The task is to smoothly apply sufficient force to the arm bow, I am guessing 15 to 20 lbs, to pull the bow into an arc without breaking it. A key to success is supporting the point of bend throughout the pulling process. Pull too fast or without sufficient support and the arm bow will crack and turn its highest use into firewood.
Such is the process of life transitions as well. Heat, a little sweat, force and hopefully lots of support. We don't want to go breaking any arm bows.
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