A Day in the Life...

Having finished my thoughts about the theology of the bourgeoisie I wanted to find out what a typical bourgeoisie day looked like. I wanted to know, outside of sleeping, eating, and working, what the bourgeoisie had left over for spiritual formation or ecclesial pursuits.

After some search I hit the jackpot. Apparently, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics annually tracks how Americans spend their time. Just go to the Bureau's annual American Time Use Survey report. There you will find tons of data on how Americans spend their time.

At the Time Use Survey website I found the chart I was looking for: How do we spend our time each day?



Summarizing the chart, the Time Use Survey states:

[T]he chart above shows how employed persons ages 25 to 54, who live in households with children under 18, spent their time on an average workday. These individuals spent an average of 8.7 hours working or in work-related activities, 7.6 hours sleeping, 2.6 hours doing leisure and sports activities, and 1.2 hours caring for others, including children.

In many ways, the point of my last series is to get us to face up to the realities and challenges posed by the chart above. Work, family, sleeping, eating, and household chores/duties account for 19.4 hours of a 24 hour day. That doesn't leave a lot of leftover time for spiritual formation activities. A little church attendance, some prayer time, a bit of volunteerism. That's about it.