FERS Disability: opm disability retirement process

Medical Retirement from Civil Service: By what measure?

July 10, 2017

Does a formula, a paradigm or a standard instill in us the direction we so desire? How is it that we compare X to something, and is the contrast a necessary prerequisite to achieving and accomplishing, or is that some artificial, societal construct that we have manufactured in order to sell ourselves a “bill of goods”? Yes, yes – Western Civilization (remember that middle-school subject taught under the general aegis of that title?) always begins with the philosophical precept of Aristotle’s, of “First Principles” and the “causes” of events and occurrences, but where is it stated that we must have a “measure” by which to compare and contrast? […]

Medical Retirement from Federal Government Employment: Life’s enjoyment

May 2, 2017

Are we ever taught that? If the answer is in the negative, then from whence did we learn, attain or otherwise receive the tools to engage in the purity of sensation such that we could embrace it? Did we become such through osmosis; from imprints; from learned behavior encompassing a lifetime of observations reinforced by wisdom’s refrain upon the blank chalkboard of our consciousness? How does one “enjoy” life, anymore than learning to ride a bicycle, drive a car or care for a cute puppy […]

Medical Retirement from Civil Service: Erasing imprints

April 29, 2017

We spend half of our lives trying to accomplish that which may never be done; go to others to obtain guidance; take medications in order to stamp out the cacophony of voices from a past regenerated in mindful moments when reflection is not what we want but quietude away from the cackle of memories. Imprints are those stamps that remain with us, like burn-marks seared indelibly into the far corners of body parts unreachable and unseen but by the telescopic lenses of our own souls. Perhaps the memories have faded, or we simply cannot pinpoint that precise moment when the stamp was made, […]

Disability Retirement from Federal Government Employment: Imprisoned souls

April 26, 2017

Do we immediately know of the figurative sense of such a concept? As the Medieval times of dark, dank and dire dungeons no longer house the tortured detritus of human excrement cast aside upon the nod of displeasure noted by a King, a Prince or a scorned Court of Royal Courtier, […]

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: Analogies

April 25, 2017

It is the greater concept often developed through metaphors and similes; but to the extent they are now of use depends largely upon the shared cultural context within which we live. If Classical literature is no longer the common thread of meaningful discourse, can references to them in creating analogies work? To share that a person’s tragedy is more Shakespeare than Milton, or that the individual’s circumstances remind one more akin to The Road to Wigan Pier […]

Medical Retirement for Federal Employees: The clinical language

April 19, 2017

The antiseptic nature of language allows for the euphemism of linguistic cloaking to occur. The corollary effect, however, is that it fails to provide a nexus to the humanity lost, and allows for an arrogance of language by imparting its distance and separation from warmth. Clinical language has that characteristic, steeped in the mysterious and archaic history of Gregorian chants at altars once embodying the Eucharist’s theological secrets of transubstantiation with the priesthood undulating in phrases foreign to ears of modernity; […]

Early Retirement for Disabled Federal Gov. Employees: Noted durations

April 13, 2017

Don’t you hate those “Apps” that reveal how much time you have taken to engage Activity-X or mindless-video-game-Y? To engage in an aside for pure enjoyment’s sake is to get lost in the moment of leisure, to become engrossed and without a mind to time, problems of the world, circumstances of the present or the irrelevancy of one’s own station in life. To read a book – perhaps of no great consequence, neither a “classic” nor a best seller of sorts; to push buttons in responding to a mindless video game; to have a silly electronic conversation with a spouse, a friend, a daughter or son aside from the seriousness of wisdom, […]

FERS & CSRS Disability Retirement: Of human frailty

March 31, 2017

Youth is the folly that disbelieves; middle age, of a progressive realization that the past does not lie, but teaches us of existent graveyards we may have passed unnoticed just yesterday, with question suddenly more prominent about mortality, the afterlife, and whether it is possible to cheat illness, death or debilitation from its awaiting wages. Do we call out to the gods in a moment of desperation, ready to make a Faustus-like contract, or buy into the cosmetic youth-movement with lotions, fitness regimens and, in the end, surgical alterations to cheat the fates of time? Of human frailty, there is no avoidance. […]

Medical Retirement from the Office of Personnel Management: The soul’s net worth

March 23, 2017

What is one’s sole net worth? In a written format, the distinction between the two concepts are quite obvious; but if in a verbal exchange, would we be able to catch that subtle distinction of nonexistent intonation? For, the exchange of the vowel “u” in the middle of the word for an “e” attached to the tail alters the meaning of the query, does it not? From an evaluation of one’s singular calculation – of taking the gross amounts of estimated value of possessions and purchases and subtracting outstanding debts, etc., and accounting for one’s sole net worth – not taking into consideration one’s spouse’s inheritance or assets predictably to be acquired […]

Federal Disability Retirement Benefits: Contented misery

March 22, 2017

Does the one who strives for happiness as a goal ever escape the bonds of contented misery? It is the ecstasy of a moment’s glimpse, and then the feeling is gone; for, such is the fleeting nature of a sensation, and more of an encumbrance than a plateau of embraced attainment. Can happiness be gauged, like a heart monitor, taking one’s blood pressure, or in that millisecond of pain in determining the glucose level through the pinprick of time? Once, in generations past, when neighbors asked of one another the state of affairs, […]