Recreation

Leisure, a Gift of Modern Living

So, as I had mentioned before, one of my prized possessions from my search for used books to sell is a complete set of Compton’s 1955 Pictured Encyclopedia and Fact index. It takes you back into a whole different world. In thumbing through the pages of volume 8, I came across the above title: Leisure, a Gift of Modern Living. I want to share a little of this with you. Hope you enjoy!

The problem of leisure is new. During the centuries that led up to recent times, men were expected to work to the limit of their bodily strength. Men worked from can to can’t.

Today, the average worker in a store, an office, or a factory spends about 40 hours a week at his job. Dividing his whole week of 168 hours into 40 for work, 56 for sleep, 28 (four each day) for eating and personal care, he has 44 hours a week left for leisure time. [of course, this is pre-fast food restaurants!]

The wise use of leisure time is an important problem for everyone, young or old. We do not work to get leisure and the pleasures leisure brings us; rather we use leisure wisely so that work itself can become rewarding and enjoyable.

Recreation… is the kind of leisure activity that brings “re-creation” or refreshment of strength and spirit. Whatever the particular choice of recreation may be, its function is to keep a person fit for his daily work.

Children need guidance in their recreation as much as they do in schoolwork or in developing good personal habits.

In leisure activities, children should seldom be set in direct competition with one another. The aim of leisure is self-improvement, not winning. A child may “win” by accident or luck, or he may win because his competitor is not a fair match for him. In either case, “victory” is hollow and can only give a false sense of superiority, not a rebirth of spirit.

Reading should be a part of everyone’s leisure program. Increase your reading speed, and you will find that both the enjoyment and comprehension will be increased.

Collection hobbies need not be expensive and can be a great leisure activity.

Every year the American people spend about one ninth of their total income on leisure-time activities. In other words, they spend about nearly six weeks’ income out of 52 weeks on play, amusements and other leisure-time pursuits. (Remember, this was in 1955)

Today, we spend far more than that on leisure-time actibities. . According to Budgeting.thenest.com (http://budgeting.thenest.com/percent-takehome-pay-should-discretionary-income-26839.html), the norm to set aside for discretionary spending today is 30% of our income, with a goal of 50% discretionary funds to be available for leisure. Hmmm…. The birth of the credit card revolution has certainly helped us to reach that 50% goal, and beyond.

So how do we spend those “discretionary” funds? According to Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/18/mastercard-household-spending-entrepreneurs-finance-budget_slide_4.html), the current amount spent on leisure activities (2008) amounts to the following:

Air Travel accounted for 4.3% of discretionary spending

Lodging accounted for 5.8% if discretionary spending

Auto Parts and Service accounted for 16.2% of discretionary spending

Clothes shopping accounted for 8.9% of discretionary spending

Luxury (spas, etc) accounted for 1.1% of discretionary spending

Restaurants accounted for 40.2% of discretionary spending

So… I hope you have found this enlightening. There are some things here that I can actually glean from and perhaps go back to a simpler, wiser time. Yet, there are other areas where I see the blessing of improvements and progress. Most of all, there are some items here that give us each a good chuckle as we spend a little leisure time reading blogs. J

May your recreation be filled with re-creation this week!