How I learned to be brave
My November column, “How We Learn to Be Afraid,” garnered more responses from readers than anything I have written in years. So I thought I would press my luck and write this companion piece about bravery. Appropriately, it also happens to be the column in which I announce my retirement from the Beacon.
Yes, 36 years after my wife, Judy, and I began publishing this monthly newspaper — originally called Senior Beacon of Greater Washington — I am hanging up that hat and donning my “pianist and composer” cap for what I intend to be my encore career.
Regular readers will know that I have taken several short sabbaticals in recent years to test-drive a career in music. Since those have been among the most pleasant times I have ever spent, I am happily giving it a go long-term.
I enter this new phase of my life with the same sense of excitement — plus a soupçon of fear — that I felt when I started the Beacon decades ago. At the time, I left a large law firm where I was a senior associate. While many people clearly thought I was nuts, several fellow associates stopped by my office and told me how much they wished they had the guts to walk away like that.
Over the years, I’ve been asked where I got the chutzpah to abandon a good thing and head into uncharted waters. I think a few defining experiences early in my life helped me learn to follow my inner voice — even (or especially) when it diverged from “common wisdom.”
Scene one: In a grade-school math class, the teacher put a problem on the board and asked two students, including me, to solve it. We came up with different answers. After each of us explained our reasoning, the teacher asked the class to vote on which answer was correct.
The first vote was split. The teacher asked for another vote; this time only one or two students voted with me. She asked yet again. With my heart pounding, I continued to insist that my answer was correct. This time, I stood alone.
The teacher then announced — rather dramatically — that only I had gotten the correct answer, and she praised me for sticking to my guns even when everyone else disagreed.
Scene two: When I was in college, I became interested in the stock market but had little money to invest. My father offered to match whatever I put into a single stock so I could get my feet wet.
I regularly flew Braniff Airlines to and from school and had read that the company was in bankruptcy. The stock had cratered but was still trading as Braniff attempted to reorganize under Chapter 11. I suggested to my father that it was a good airline and that the stock was a bargain. He expressed doubt but supported me.
By the time I graduated, our investment had more than doubled. While at least part good luck, this experience also suggested I could trust my intuition.
I’m not saying those experiences led me to start the Beacon. I left law and started a newspaper for older adults because my heart — and my wife — told me I would wake up with more energy if I did work that better used my talents, allowed me to be my own boss, and helped as many people as possible along the way.
But any new beginning takes courage. And I think those earlier moments in my life that gave me some practice acting courageously have helped me to approach later challenges in life — whether starting a business or retiring from one — and see them as opportunities.
I will deeply miss working every day with the phenomenal Beacon team, who have been like an extension of my family — most of them for 15, 20, and even more than 25 years. Throughout that time, they have devoted themselves heart and soul to making the Beacon what it has become, which is to say an institution beyond my wildest dreams. (By the way, Judy will continue working with the Beacon for awhile longer. She’s younger than I!)
I will also miss engaging with our dedicated readers and long-time advertisers throughout the year at our Expos, on county and nonprofit boards, and at networking and social events.
Even as I say farewell to my role at the Beacon, I hope to continue connecting with you through music. In addition to composing original songs and posting them on my website (please visit stuartsmelodies.com), I plan to perform them along with classical and contemporary favorites at small gatherings throughout the DMV. Activity coordinators, take note: I’m available for bookings!
If you’d like to help give my new career a boost, I invite you to visit my channel on YouTube (search “Stuart’s Melodies”), listen to a piece or two, and hit “subscribe.” There’s no charge — it simply means you’ll be notified when I post something new.
Of course, I also hope you will continue to read the Beacon, patronize its advertisers, and recommend it to your friends.
I would love to hear from you. You can respond to this column at info@thebeaconnewspapers.com or write to me personally at stuart@stuartsmelodies.com.
It’s been an amazing and rewarding 36 years. Thank you all!
