Early Retirement for Injured Federal Employees
Can innocence lost ever be regained? We often reminisce and shake our heads with wonder — what a naive, innocent young person we once were. Do we yearn for that time of innocence? Or, do we shake our heads at the stupidity we once exhibited and scurry away out of embarrassment? […]
Are memories faulty, and are they so for a purpose? Does the human psyche selectively extrapolate the positive and repress the negative precisely in order to preserve an optimism that will incentivize survival? If our memory banks retain a pessimism such that the overload of negative images cumulatively dominates, wouldn’t the subtle forces of depression set in to overwhelm us? […]
Have you ever reflected upon the word, “matter”? Such an interesting and compelling unit of our language — as in the question asked, “What is the matter?” By contrast, how about the question, “What matters in this world?” and in a different form, “What matter makes up the universe?” “Matter” refers to substance, whether used in the manner referring to a circumstance or event, or in inquiring about the foundational essence of that which makes up the “something” in our world. […]
Remember the superstition of cracks in the sidewalk? How we used to avoid them for fear of calamity, and worse yet, of the hand that reaches from beneath the bed late at night when parents are fast asleep and the screams that curl the midnight silence may never be heard because the world is not quite what it appeared to be? Or, as we are walking along the normal route of direction, to get from point A to destination B, […]
Normally, of course, the common usage of the terms involve the combination with a conjunctive — of trial and error, implicating a process whereby the latter term triggers the former (i.e., the “error” forces us to engage another round of trials, which then may lead to further errors resulting in further trials, etc.) into a potentially lengthy repetition of attempts, each with the advancement through possession of greater knowledge gained from the errors identified and witnessed. […]
One often suspects that the concept itself was invented by the wealthy and scornful — perhaps in some back room where caviar and champagne were being served, and someone whispering, “Let the little people have some little pleasures in life…”. It is that which we are prevailed upon to believe as the ultimate contentment of life: of the “little pleasures” that pass by as the greater significance, as opposed to owning an original Monet or a Renoir. […]
It is nature’s way of getting rid of the old and replacing it with the new. Sometimes, however, nature is slow in its processes and the environment surrounding doesn’t quite keep pace with the steady progress of unresponsive mechanisms — as in the horse’s winter coat that remains for weeks despite the sudden heat wave that overtakes the region. […]
What does a person mean when it is said, “Yes, that is technically correct”? Does it matter where the inflection resides, or which part of the statement is emphasized? If greater syllabic magnification is placed on the word itself, whilst the remainder of the sentence is left in a monotone of boredom, is something else being conveyed beyond the mere words declared? […]
The rabbits we chase are the ones that reveal not so much about our preferences, but more about who we are and the priorities we place. For, as one walks about in life, whether in suburban neighborhoods where rabbits abound because no one shoots them for meals, anymore, and so they can multiply without natural restrictions for lack of predators, the fact that there are other things to pursue […]
It normally doesn’t come until late in life; of that picturesque paradigm of the old man sitting in a rocking chair beside a crackling fire, a dog or cat, perhaps, on the floor just beside, reading a novel or looking through a picture album; where is Norman Rockwell, and is he still relevant? In modernity and more recently, the picture depicted is of the old couple, or in solitary state of affairs, climbing the mountains in the Himalayas or traveling to exotic lands beyond; […]