depression federal government taking long leave

OPM Medical Retirement Legal Representation: Sad stories

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Is sadness relative?  Are there sad stories that are so sad that even the ones that were considered sad prior to the sadder story being told, somehow nullify the lesser sad stories and make them into not sad stories?  Do we, after hearing the sadder tale, turn to the first story teller and say, “Yours was not so sad, after all, and in fact you have it pretty good”?  If a person tells of having just buried his mother, and you ask, “How old was she?” […] Read More …

Lawyer Representation OPM Disability Retirement: Perspective versus reality

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One may counter that the contrast is no different than that which we encounter daily, especially in this universe of millennials and post-millennial era – of opinion versus fact, or truth versus falsehood (and now the new one, of “news” versus “fake news” or “facts” versus “alternative facts”).  But “perspective” versus “reality” has some subtle nuances that need to be explicated.  For one thing, one’s perspective may be identical to the reality one possesses a perspective upon; […] Read More …

Lawyer Representation for OPM Disability Claims: The phony smile

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We have all seen it; the question is, how is it recognizable?  Well, one way is by the contrasting identification with other features of the human façade.  Here, Plato’s attributed observation that the eyes are the window to one’s soul, is that comparative characteristic that reveals the veil of the phony smile […] Read More …

Federal Disability Retirement: The beleaguered soul

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They walk among us. In modern parlance, the metaphor is equipped with “zombies” and the popularity of such cultural fodder. People tend to watch such shows and laugh with nervous chatter; but the truth is, there is some inner fear and trepidation that is reflected by such haunting tales, where comedy is fused with the absurd. The idea itself reverberates with signification of a nervous reality. It is likened to that old movie (the 1956 version, not the 1978 remake), Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which frightened the French Existentialists because of the denial of that one human characteristic that made life worth living […] Read More …

Federal Employee Medical Retirement: Avoiding the anarchy of thoughtless acts

Posted onAuthorFederal Disability Retirement Attorney1 Comment

Life requires acting; successful living demands thoughtful acts. Every good stage manager recognizes the signs; there are those who float through the script, with nary a cognitive engagement; others who involve themselves with an exhaustive turmoil of stipends unpaid; and still, those who think that talent alone will carry one through, despite the mediocrity which has surfaced unabashed, and where fingerprints left behind of tattered devastation betraying the lack of success. Do we ever really “get over” our own ignorance or arrogance? It is said that the two go hand-in-hand, like cousins […] Read More …