Other benefits come from the work life of Emerging Sages: “Although there are days of great frustration, I feel fortunate to have the job I have. Being in a position where I feel like I make a difference. And making the community a better place for our families and children.”
In essence, Emerging Sage leaders value the benefit of legacy, leaving something behind that reflects on the lives they have lived: “Having peace of mind in knowing that I am investing my life in something worthy. I am able to go home every night and look in the mirror and know I have spent my day and my life in service to people, working for a cause greater than myself, hoping that it will outlast me.”
Enduring Relationships: Another major benefit to Emerging Sage leaders is the personal relationships they establish and build alongside their civic engagements: “My wife and I have so much fun in the relationships we have with other people through our civic engagements. We feel inspired to continue to do things. Some of the people I grew-up with here spend much of their free time still playing video games – I just don’t get it.”
Emerging Sage leaders talk a lot about relationships being formed through their civic involvements – deep, meaningful, enduring relationships that involve them with other engaging people. These relationships serve as a powerful antidote to the isolation that new technologies inevitably introduce. For without civic engagement, men and women of the technology age can be easily seduced by the virtual contact they have through the Internet and e-mail rather than seeking contact of substance with “real people.” The Emerging Sages spend time with colleagues who share the same values, concerns, and priorities. It’s almost a “church of community service” to which they and their collaborators belong. For most Emerging Sages, this certainly beats the attractions of social media.
Lifelong Learners and “Flow”: There is another generative benefit identified by many Emerging Sage leaders. This benefit is aligned with the recurrent theme of continuous life-long learning. Emerging Sages are often involved in new roles and seek learning about new facets of community life; they motivate themselves to grow and learn by taking on new and expanded challenges.
Moreover, this new learning is seen as fun, a joy rather than drudgery. Civic activities have become their social life and source of leisure as well. This reaffirms their current values and helps them to grow in new areas—like creative problem-solving, strategizing, and reading about new developments in a variety of fields. So, the personal horizons of Emerging Sages are being enlarged and they, in turn, are serving as role models for their own children and for other mid-life adults in Grass Valley and Nevada City.
Some of the older Emerging Sages describe their civic involvements in terms of “commitment” and “responsibility,” but many at the younger end of the age spectrum talk about the sheer enjoyment of the work they are doing. This the process of “flow” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990): the incredible joy to be found in taking on and learning from a new challenge.
While many of the Senior Sage leaders become civically involved in order to find stimulation and meaning in their lives, most Emerging Sages are already highly stimulated: they juggle family, job, recreation, and civic involvement; and they don’t need more incentive. They seek out and find “flow” in their civic activities. One wonders if this pattern of multiple sources of flow will help these men and women to lead longer and healthier lives. Perhaps, as previously noted, engagement in civic activities is beneficial to health at virtually any age.
