FERS Disability: retire from federal employment due to worsening service connected disability

OPM Medical Retirement under FERS: Castles in the air

April 3, 2019

Is it the same idea as Cervantes’ Don Quixote who charges at the wind mills? Or of Don McLean’s soulful lyrics when he wrote, “And if she asks you why you can tell her that I told you, That I’m tired of Castles in the Air.”? Is there a difference between dreams and visions realized, and those that remain as castles in the air? Are such unrealized castles merely the childish remnants that were left behind within the bundled laughter of grown-ups who saw the folly of youth, […]

Federal Disability Retirement Information: Action after words

January 12, 2018

Does the failure of an action to succeed a string of words make it automatically into a lie, or can it merely indicate a delay between thought and action, spoken words and action, or misinterpretation of words followed by non-action? Are there phrases and afterthoughts that undermine and negate the initial statement of promised and anticipated actions, such that they “justify” the non-action? […]

Federal Disability Retirement: And then we are gone…

August 3, 2017

The trailing ellipsis establishes a pause for reflection, and the finality of three periods for an emphasis upon the irreversible nature of the statement. “And then” connotes that something preceded – a lifetime of activities, a century or less of human historicity involving birth, growth, work, struggles, etc. – existed before the conclusion of the life. The “we are” slice of the sentence implies two additional variables: the universality of involvement – an event that excludes no one […]

FERS & CSRS Medical Retirement for Federal Employees: Age

March 3, 2017

It is only that proverbial “state of mind” for those it does not impact; then, when reality sets in, the decrepit bones and uncooperative muscles, inability to will the stamina to rise to the occasion, and the creaking temerity of organs unable to muster the vitality of even a decade ago, we submit to the currency of our own destiny. We can scoff at it; deny it; attempt to defy its residual consequences; and even remain indifferent to its effects; but in the end, mortality demands a say in the matter, and age is like the ravages of time and the echoes of a haunting flaw […]

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: Wisdom’s hold on life

February 21, 2017

We never quite “get it”. Trans-generational imputing of wisdom is not part of modern society. In more “traditional” societies, multi-generational families live together out of practical reasons: Not only is it less expensive if the earnings are pooled into a single resource of means, but until marriage or an offer of economic leverage pulls a member away from the core, imparting of wisdom, experience and voices of learned care may be passed down from generation to generation. In the West, instead, the rush is to depart and fracture; to get away as quickly as possible; for, as youth is the cult of modernity, so folly of youth is the means by which we live. […]

Civil Service Disability Retirement Benefits: Human activity

February 15, 2017

The dizzying pace of it all defies comprehension. We are, indeed, busy-bees, always engaged in this project, that protest, intervening in the affairs of others when our own are in such a state of disarray; up at it early in the morning and continuing until exhaustion sets in or wayward dementia in old age where even nursing homes impose human activity every night – bingo, dance, meditation, Tai Chi, family visitation day; not even a break for the aged. […]

Federal Disability Retirement: The sweater draped over a chair

February 14, 2017

You look in the room and see the sweater draped over a chair. You turn your gaze elsewhere, engage the ongoing conversations and the din of others distracted. Later, you turn back your gaze again, and the sweater is gone. You look about to try and see whether someone picked it back up, is wearing it, or perhaps put it somewhere else. You imply and infer – yes, one must follow the general grammatical rule that the speaker implies while the listener infers; but you are both the speaker and the listener, the one who observes and the same one who steps outside of the conscious universe to observe the observed. […]

OPM Disability Retirement for Federal Employees: Preparation subverting the moment

February 13, 2017

“Seize the moment” (or the day) – isn’t that the mantra of modernity? Never let consequences or the hurt of others delay the enigmatic pleasures of bodily delights. Forget results; ignore preparatory steps, as that would waste valuable time otherwise left for delectable dalliances. If modernity has translated “worth” and “value” in terms of present moments of existential delights, then the greater heightening of each event of ecstasy experienced in the “now” of every life should be exponentially enhanced at every opportunity available and presented. […]