FERS Disability Retirement from the OPM: Caught in a mold

Not of the unwanted fungus type, growing as an organic filament in damp conditions; but of the other definition where the hollow of the inverse image is created and a liquid is poured into it, left to harden, then to lift, leave aside and discard in order for the formed creation to survive. We are metaphors of the mold that forms, inasmuch as who we are is often determined by the casts which others have structured around us. Whether by expectations or a history of others telling us who we are, we abide by that script which was never written by ourselves. […] Read More …

Federal & Postal Disability Retirement: Meaning of life

Most of us are too busy to pause for air, reflect upon theoretical, hypothetical or philosophical issues that have little to do with day-to-day living or earning wages in order to maintain a certain standard of living. Every now and then, however, when the tumults of life’s encounters reaches a pinnacle of unsolvable problems such that the stressors exceed the barometric pressure allowable for the human psyche to withstand, there is a compelled stoppage, a mandated cessation and a forced condemnation to rest. It is, in short, called a “medical condition”. […] Read More …

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: The measurable advantage

How does one quantify a concept? It is where the clash of the hypothetical meets the practical, and the worlds collide in silent discourse of battling combat, no less real than armies charging at one another in abandonment of fear, safety or self-preservation. There are advance scouts that test the strength and durability of enemy lines; of tactical maneuvers to outflank and deceive; and even of repeatedly dying for the hill where no strategic purpose is recognized save the pride of the tattered flag that stands last as the reverberating echoes of garbled yells that reflect the platoon’s pride. […] Read More …

Federal Employment Early Medical Retirement: That state of cognitive dissonance

For all other species, even a momentary state of unawareness can mean death. Predators seek the narrow window of advantage; that is the evolutionary determinism which propagates death, and shows mercy of life for those who close all such seams of opportunities; or so the Darwinian theory goes. Man possesses a peculiar capacity to become lost in thought; whether in daydreaming, deep in slumber; contemplation amidst conceptual constructs of word pictures dancing before one’s eyes; we can walk in a funk or a daze, and drive long distances on super highways and at the end of the trip, not recall a single moment of how we got there. […] Read More …

OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer: The Pastoral Painting

It is that which we strive to achieve; a moment of quietude, an aside of reserved inattention; that plateau where sheep graze silently in pastures green, and the distant echo of a neighbor’s dog barking is merely but a contour from the daily hubbub of reality.  Perhaps the pastoral setting is but an idealized paradigm; but, without it, there is a sense that life is pointless.  […] Read More …

Federal Disability Retirement: Compartmentalizing

It may well be another evolutionary vestige to have the capacity to divide, separate, pigeonhole and compartmentalize; otherwise, the extreme bombardment of visual and auditory stimuli would be overwhelming, and perhaps untenable to one’s ability to process the volume and extent of the information needed to receive, analyze and comprehend. What is relevant; what must be immediately attended and responded to; which sets can be procrastinated; where does this bit of data go to? […] Read More …