- makes $735/week
- has a landline telephone
- says he/she is in very good or excellent health
- is overweight
- believes the effects of global warming have already begun or soon will
- is currently married
- lives in one of the top 50 metropolitan areas
- lives in a house built before 1975
- watches 2 hours and 49 minutes of television a day
- drinks alcohol regularly
- pays his/her credit card bill in full each month
- has been to college, but does not have a college degree
- believes in God without a doubt
- favors the death penalty
- believes in evolution
- wants the government to spend more on education, health care, and the environment
- does not know which political party controls the House of Representatives
- The Average American Household contains 2.6 people, owns 2.28 vehicles, 1.6 dogs, 2.1 cats, and 2.3 birds, and is $75,600 in debt (including the mortgage).
- The Average American Man, between the ages of 30-39, has black hair and a BMI of 29 at 5'9".
- The Average American Woman, between the ages of 30 and 39, has brown hair and a BMI of 26.4 at 5'4".
Right. Enough statistics. You don't even have to read all of those to see where I might be going with this post. I fit... let me count... 3.5 of those. That's 17.5% if you want another statistic. No, I didn't just choose statistics that don't match me. I guess I'm not an Average American. In fact, I don't think I know a single Average American. That's interesting, given those facts are based on us. Where are all the Average Americans described above? I daresay nowhere.
Each person is an individual. Each person has passions and hobbies, history and personality. That is something that no statistic can capture. Yes, 52% of the population might enjoy scrapbooking (I'm making that up), and that means the enjoyment of scrapbooking is a trait of the Average American, but even that number means very little. One person's scrapbook looks completely different from another person's because each scrapbook reflects the individual who spent time creating it.
The Average American is a bunch of numbers that eliminate our uniqueness. Whatever it is that makes me, me, can't be captured in the Average American because it's me, and I'm not Average. I'm more than Average. Yet... we still seem to be chasing after this American Dream of keeping up with the Average American (commonly named Jones). We want to fit in, to be like everyone else. Everyone else, in my opinion, is boring, impossible, and even contradictory.
God created each and every one of us. We simply have to look around at creation to see that He has an abundance of creativity, and He applied that creativity to us as well. Psalm 139:13-14 is an oft-quoted passage, but it comes from one of my favorite Psalms and is beautiful each and every time it is used:
For You formed my inward parts;
You knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are Your works;
my soul knows it very well.
You are not average. You are uniquely, wonderfully you, and you are loved by the One who created you as an individual.
Now, I do want to note that I wrote this Average American post from an American point of view mostly because it was easiest to find American statistics. The same message applies, though, to South Africans to Germans to Venezuelans to Malaysians and to any person anywhere.
References:
https://www.avma.org/KB/Resources/Statistics/Pages/Market-research-statistics-US-pet-ownership.aspx
http://press.experian.com/United-States/Press-Release/new-study-shows-multiple-cars-are-king-in-american-households.aspx
http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p20-570.pdf
http://www.newstrategist.com/store/index.cfm/feature/57_15/50-facts-about-the-average-american.cfm
No, I'm not going to write them up in MLA format.
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