Early Retirement for Injured Federal Employees
There can be a duality of meanings, of course — of doing X “out of love” or “being” out of love. The two are opposites, or of conceptual antonyms. What does it mean to act “out of love” — in the first sense of the phrase? Does being compensated for doing something necessarily and immediately cancel any notion that one is doing it with the pure motive “out of love”? […]
The “I”, of course, always dominates; but the two cannot be separated, for they are inevitably interlinked and intertwined in the consciousness of our collective selves. And so the “we” is subsumed by the “I”, and the “I” cannot effectively be distinguished from the “we”. Who we are is inextricably aggregated with who I am; who I am is a product of who we are. […]
Isn’t that the refrain that dampens? Whether for a child or a young adult who still possesses and retains the enthusiasm of the possible, we pour cold water upon such unfettered energy for the future yet undeclared by saying, “Except, in real life…”. Of course, what is inserted to replace the ellipses is the clincher that determines the mood of the response. Is it: “Except, in real life, that never happens.” Or — “Except, in real life, you’ll be broke and devastated.” […]
We all make them. We may deny doing so, engaging it, silently participating in the informal sport of it all, but we nevertheless join in — that judging eye for the look, the appearance, or maybe sometimes even the substance. Comparisons are performed each and every day of our lives — by ourselves; by others; publicly or in the insular universe of private thoughts. Appearance; demeanor, voice inflections; vocabulary used; […]
How we speak about the world; the words we use, the vocabulary inserted; and of the commas, hyphens and semicolons inserted; are they merely contained within the language games engaged, or are they reflective of a greater whole within aworld that views reality through the lens of language? Does what we say, how we speak, the words we choose and the accent intoned make a difference – and, if so, how, to whom and to what extent? […]
The evocative images of such a metaphorical phrase are immediately understood by most. As in challenges we all face throughout life, a river snakes across different and foreign terrain; in some seasons, a drought may dry up the vibrancy of the river, while in times of plenty, flooding and overabundance may occur. There are periods of swift currents, and days of lazy haze; and underneath the calm exterior is an underworld of activity and blur of living, both of tumult as well as those timeless memories forever remembered, and it is precisely the paradigm upon which Heraclitus staked his perspective upon with the statement that “No man steps in the same river twice.” […]
Life is mostly dark clouds, with a ray of sunshine briefly upon a small patch of wet grass. Yes, yes – such a perspective is a mirror reflection of the conflict between the “half-full” versus “half-empty” outlook; but is it helpful for young people to posit a world view, a paradigm or, in the philosophical realm of ivory towers, that king of all royalties in linguistic sophistication that is dropped nonchalantly to impress and raise eyebrows – Weltanschauung […]
It is, of course, an obvious play off of the 1957 Pulitzer Prize winning work (publication date of 1955), describing 8 U.S. Senators who displayed courage in the face of criticism (an inherent oxymoron?). Whether or not, and to what extent, Kennedy himself wrote the work (Ted Sorensen, John F.’s speechwriter, finally conceded in his 2008 autobiography as much) […]
Cathartic calamities caused creatively cannot cooperatively contain characteristic contents clearly coordinated contumaciously. Sometimes, the insistence upon form can result in the nonsensical loss of clarity in substance; life often reflects the absurdities we establish by convention and societal imposition, and we pay the price for it. Life is like being a letter in a series of alliterative words; we are helpless in being attached, but cannot dissociate ourselves, separate one’s self, or otherwise excise the offending aspect. We are forever wedded like the proverbial two peas in a pod, […]
It is that which we strive to achieve; a moment of quietude, an aside of reserved inattention; that plateau where sheep graze silently in pastures green, and the distant echo of a neighbor’s dog barking is merely but a contour from the daily hubbub of reality. Perhaps the pastoral setting is but an idealized paradigm; but, without it, there is a sense that life is pointless. We may engage in daily meanderings and wonder about teleological issues on high; but, in the end, something more mundane is the normative constriction which compels us to act. […]