Well, I haven’t been fishing much lately, and that bothers me. But seriously, I did sacrifice my family for my job during my career and paid dearly for it. Certainly my present wife believes I spend way too much time going to meetings and the like. She wants to travel a lot more while we still have our health, and I need to figure out how to find time to do this.
The Nature of Sacrifice I: Adjusting to a New Life
In most instances the senior sage leaders say their civic engagements don’t require sacrifice. Their lives are so structured that they find time for leisure activities, grandkids, the arts and, yes, civic engagement. They might occasionally complain that they don’t have time to do needle point or go fishing, or they may regret not spending more time with family members. Senior sages may have sacrificed income when moving to Grass Valley or Nevada City, but most often the sacrifice is not tied to their volunteer activities. In some cases, they simply may have continued with the “Type A” behavior of their youth by joining too many boards or taking on too many volunteer assignments. But they soon adjust and find a way to secure more balance in their lives. Even among those senior sages who are still working full or part-time, there is a thoughtful wedding of paid employment and civic engagement. As is the case with many of the emerging sage leaders, senior sages find time to gain both energy and direction through their volunteer work—and this easily transfers to the work they do for pay.
In many cases there is no feeling of sacrifice because the sage leader has a fair amount of “free time.” Or he or she is fortunate in having a supportive spouse and family who fully appreciate the meaning and satisfaction that the leader derives from voluntary civic activities; indeed, many spouses are themselves actively involved in civic endeavors. One of the senior sage leaders talks about going home after a day of volunteer work and engaging in an animated discussion with his spouse about “leadership strategies” in his favored civic organization: “What should I do next?” In this way, the spouse becomes engaged at least indirectly in the sagacious life of the partner.
1K Club
