“…
1. Leisure time: this is when people carry out those forms of activity which are designated as holiday-time, as recreation, as a form of relief from other forms of work: leisure time is perhaps even indispensable.
2. Wage-earning time: here what is meant is work that is paid for by money and ensures a part of the total cost of living. This is usually thought to be equivalent to half a day’s work for man and woman, linked, of course, with the freedom to choose just as much work as he or she wants to do. There is a precondition, however, that this form of work does no harm to the ecology nor to society and that it does not infringe upon the basic needs/rights of others, Another precondition is that there should be a basic living wage for every adult – irrespective of society’s evaluation of the quality of the work done.
3. Personal work-time: here time is defined as that spent in creative activities in order to achieve for oneself a certain level of physical comfort; activities that safeguard the health of family members; in order to supply the household with food, to spend money on eduation, cultural activities, for travel; for the repair of damaged machinery, tools, for mending clothing and so on and in order provide for oneself house and home.
4. The obligatory ‘social’ time: which normally lasts three periods of about one year each (the whole of the first ‘year’ at the age of twenty; the period of the second ‘year’ is distributed among all subsequent years: this comprises two to three weeks each year; the third year occurs when one is fifty years old) This form of ‘time’ obliges one to take up activities that are performed for the sake of society or for others; for instance, the sorting out and re-cycling of waste material; cleaning up woodlands and lakes; social services performed on behalf of the elderly; support rendered to the caring professions, practical assistance to measures that afford greater mobility to the physically handicapped or the agéd; intensive care of the mentally ill; establishing verbal contact and communication with the schizophrenic; caring for those who suffer from all forms of addiction; preventive and protective measures taken to obviate or alleviate problems arising from violent acts; organising and carrying out of sporting events and cultural activities; the provision of non-aggressive troops for tasks in crisis ‘hot-spots’; ensuring security and safety in night-time and late evening train journeys; child-minding actvities in the broadest sense; educational coaching and so on …
5. The ‘informal’ social time: this comprises all kinds of honorary and unpaid work: the furtherance of neighbourliness and neighbourhood cohesion, private lessons, visiting relatives …
6. Time for oneself: here the activity relates to one’s own person (the ‘ego’ per se); health, sport, cultural and religious activities, the interior life, spirituality …
7. Time for reproduction/generation: under this rubric what is meant is every form of activity that relates to posterity: the care, supervision and education of children and grandchildren and it refers to the consciousness of the duties of responsible parenthood that this entails…”
(Ruh, pp 30 ff & pp37 ff)
Excerpt from Lesson-unit 21 (2nd exercise)
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