Early Retirement for Injured Federal Employees
At what point does the rate of return diminish to the extent that it is “no longer worth it.”? And, what is the “it” referring to? Is it the effort expended in contrast to the compensation received? Is it the dividends paid upon an investment ignored? Often, in all of the contexts just described, the focus is upon the wrong point; it is not the “end product” or the final sum that should determine […]
There are appropriate contexts within which to consider them, as well as places, insertions, events and conversational modalities where it is partly or entirely irrelevant; but as with most things in life, the boundaries that bifurcate are not always clear and distinct. When one is considering purely subjective circumstances, it is clearly the “appropriate” moment — of personal relationships; of a vacation to be taken; of emotions being considered. […]
Life is lived by analogies. It is how we understand, comprehend and make sense of a world in turmoil. By identifying a resemblance between two or more particulars while perhaps remaining somewhat different in other aspects, we are able to relate things, understand them, comprehend the isolation of differentiation between X and Y and yet embrace those differences despite the lack of commonality in all other respects. […]
The signature is the great identifier of a person. It is, in some countries and cultures more than others, and even here in the United States, a feature that distinguishes, a type of rite of passage into adulthood, and in many ways a revealing characteristic. It allows for the voluntary identification of a feature emanating from one’s own free will; an act which seals a compact; […]
Some avoid it; others run to it like an obsession that cannot be abandoned; and for most, it is merely a daily habit that must be tolerated. The face in the mirror that we view in order to “present” ourselves to the world is the one we are born with, attempt to alter in multiple ways throughout different stages of life – perhaps by artificial means ranging in spectral thunders of surgical alterations, color-dying, parting the hair on the left side instead of the right; trying to cover that growing bald plate that shines like a heavenly orb […]
That a single vowel can radically alter the meaning of a word is not surprising; rather, it is the simplicity of the reduction – from one constituting an onerous sense of the corrupt, to a mere insignificance of action – that demarcates the chasm of definitional differences between the two. Both are adjectives; but of the former, often associated with corruption involving bribery and characterized by a mercenary motive, while the latter is of a pardonable offense, minor on a scale of wrongdoings, and merely bordering on the barely noticeable spectrum of sins acknowledged […]
“Language is a labyrinth of paths. You approach from one side and know your way around; you approach the same place from another side and no longer know your way about.” #203, Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein. Life is never a static construct; those who consider it so, are sorely left behind when the winds of change suddenly fill the sails and the slumbering ship awakens with a groan to pull free of its moorings. Left behind are the days when a person could count on the vocation of the parent, or of a career singular throughout. […]
Age does not necessarily result in greater wisdom; rather, for many, it merely sits in a puddle of stale intransigence. As well, palpable advancement on a linear scale occurs only in the context of the capacity to make progress, but remains in a state of limbo without an intermediate causal impetus. Throughout life, it is the refinements made which make for differentiation. A minor tweak here; a self-reproachful reminder here; for, very few begin the journey needing a complete overhaul, but merely a readjustment and cleaning of those spark-plugs gone bad. […]
Once a cereal brand, a glob of mush whose nutritional content was suspect at best, and the bland taste of which represented the monotony of modernity; now, it is mere pap, where the lack of substantive content belies the true nature of harm, insipid and incremental, creeping daily and slowly deteriorating. Isn’t that how a medical condition destroys? Yes, there are traumatic events — where loss of limb and even of life suddenly cuts short the vibrancy of a human narrative; […]