Of course I have not forgotten that a year encompasses just 52 weeks. But a gap year is more flexible than what we admire as the legal, orthodox, and obdurate movement of the earth around the sun. I retired in January 2024. For the umpteenth time, from the practice of clinical genetics (yes, that’s a … More Gap Year, Week 76
Reindeer began nibbling the grass in our neighborhood just after Labor day. … More Gap Year, Week 46
“Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?”
… More Gap Year, Week 22
Memorial Day is in the rearview mirror, and the summer of my Gap Year is officially here. This is shaping up to be the most important phase of the journey as I begin to seriously work on applications to low-residency MFA programs in creative writing. My heart and mind, though, remain anchored in clinical genetics. … More Gap Year, Week XXI
There will be a time when the soldiers will be forgotten, just a footnote dissolved in the cauldron of data that eons and events will churn and dilute, when our soil and planets, our hearts and light will return to stardust.
In the meantime, we can remember, if we so choose. Then the question is “Why?”
… More Gap Year, week nineteen
Since January I have been on this interesting journey from medicine to writing. Since Week 15, my last posting in mid-April, I have been distracted from writing by the best of all excuses – adventure and exploration, friends and family, haunts old and new. The photo here is moonrise over the Mississippi, from the shore … More Gap year, week unknown
Welcome or welcome back to my travels between respectability and susceptibility. Less than three months ago I was an employed clinical geneticist. Now I’m the retiree ordering a cappuccino in the forenoon. This month my plans have been to focus on nonfiction, including medicine, but I have not been especially efficient. We took a week … More Gap Year -> Week Eleven
Truth is stranger than fiction. You can see here a beard (me) in a hooded sweatshirt. What is probably true is that it is my Hamilton College lacrosse sweatshirt, last worn in 1979, then saved in several generations of cardboard boxes and moved from Clinton to Baltimore to Boston to Bethesda, Tacoma, Seoul, Vienna (VA), … More Gap Year | Week 9
This goalie says, “I find your aim to be …. disappointing.” Springtime, or close enough to spring, means one important thing. Lacrosse season is here. I watched Georgetown (ranked 19) beat Notre Dame (ranked 1) in Indiana. Very exciting. I played lax WBITD (Way Back In The Day), and my family has some lacrosse heritage … More Gap Year – Week 8
Today, I saw bluebonnets! There were periwinkle blossoms last week. First flowers are exciting for their annual perfection and reassurance that the world turns, that the axis is sure. Hold on. Weren’t we skiing just a week or two ago? The weather has been lovely here in San Antonio, but bluebonnets in mid-February seems early … More Gap Year | Week Seven | Lupinus texensis
Scott D. McLean, MD 