I write, speak, invest, network, and question to stimulate fruitful conversation. Let's talk about human flourishing! It begins with freedom. Holy leisure is the key to human being, freedom and generativity. Please join me in the adventure of realizing Christ!
SAW 17: Individual vs Community
1. What proportion of your waking hours do you spend in the company of other people?
About 75%
2. Of your in-company time, what proportion is spent with family only? With single individuals, or small and intimate groups? With small interest- or need-based groups (your alcoholics anonymous meeting or the Brewers Guild, for instance)? In formal instruction or class situations? In formal religious situations (Mass, spiritual direction, prayer sodalities, confession, RCIA, etc.)? In public situations (shopping malls, traffic, airports, , etc.)?
About 73% is family time, the rest about evenly split between friends, Church, small groups and public time running errands, etc… . There is some overlap, as about 6 hours each week of family time includes friends.
3. If you categorized your time as “private” and “public” instead of “alone” and “with people,” what proportion of your time is spent privately vs. publicly?
Almost 100% is private, if I consider friends, small groups, home, Church all private. ‘Personal’ might be a better word. I’m ‘in public’ when running errands, doing public speaking, and blogging from the privacy of my home to readers unknown.
4. What proportion of your time with family is spent at leisure, and what proportion is spent in more of a “task” orientation? (It’s completely up to you whether you think “driving to Church,” for instance, is a leisurely or task-oriented time with your kids; cooking dinner might be a task to accomplish, or you may perceive it as a time of leisure…you get the idea: answer according to your subjective sense of things.)
About 50% of our family time is spent ‘at leisure,’ as most of it occurs when members are off work, out of school, eating and welcoming friends here, or each doing their own leisurely thing. The balance is task time – each one has chores, cooks, different ones shop, and some will do work while in leisurely company with family members.
5. What proportion of your time with spouse and close friends is spent at leisure, and what proportion is spent in a more task-oriented way? (Again, for example, a book study with friends may be a task-oriented activity for you or a leisurely one…it’s your subjective sense of things.)
About 50% of my ‘spouse time’ is task oriented, and almost all my time with friends is spent at leisure. I can imagine a time when friends mostly met to garden, can or sew together, but we have the luxury of just talking.
6. What proportion of your time alone is spent at leisure, and what proportion is spent with a task orientation? (Once again, your commitment to exercise, for example, might feel like a task or like taking time to play…it’s your call.)
I have ‘work days’ that are all work, much of that done alone but in the company of nearby, in-and-out family members. Naptime has always been my guarantee of ‘alone time’. There are very few moments when I am actually alone, but I feel I have the time I need for leisure.
7. What proportion of your time with non–family members is spent in your home or in theirs? Where else do you get together with others?
About 60% is spent in my home or theirs, and the rest at Church, in public space such as bookstores and restaurants.
8. What proportion of your time is spent in pursuit of your own education, or formation, or skill-building (your piano practice, your book study group, your spiritual direction, your reading, etc.)? Is most of this “public” or “private” time?
About 20% of my time, mostly at home with family about, is spent on my own formation, prayer, book group readings.
9. What would you like to work on learning, if you could find a friend or group of friends to do it with you?
I’d like to have friends gather ‘round to learn foreign languages together. I’d also like to try my hand at upholstering an old couch or chair, if there were friends to tackle it with me.
10. What would you like to work on learning, if you could be alone to focus on it by yourself?
It would be nice to get disciplined about learning to play the piano…but I do get frustrated with people around, noise, and interruption, so I don’t wade in. Also, my kids who are learning need priority, so their time on piano bumps mine.
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