It is what Cordelia recognized but which her father could not foresee, and the ruin of a kingdom, the loss of order and the crumbling of relationships resulted all because of the failure to recognize sincerity from entreaties based upon hidden motives of greed and the concealed hand of evil; and of the truism of ex nihilo nihil fit — that nothing comes from nothing — even Parmenides could not warn us of the consequences.
It is because flattery is nothing but — but an insincere cover for motives unrevealed; but a superficial sweetness that can never satisfy; but a swamp of words without substance that will sink into the muck of sycophantic drivel; but of nothingness.
Flattery is the most dangerous of invectives spewed precisely because the sugar that sweetens is that which energizes, but lasts for only a brief time before the reality of bitterness that is sure to follow cannot but hide the reality of a life hidden. The starkness of reality is often too cruel to withstand, and so we invite the nothingness which comes from flattery.
For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition is about to end a career, the reality of the medical condition itself is what is often that which we wish could be covered by life’s sweetness. We wish for X, but life has given us Y. We thus hope for flattery to lessen the impact, but the reality of harshness refuses to lead us down into the pathway of nothingness.
Federal agencies are harsh entities; they may have flattered us in the past by making us think that we are invincible; that we “matter” to them; that we are part of a greater team, etc.
When a medical condition begins to prevent the Federal employee or U.S. Postal worker from performing the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal position, then suddenly the sugary voices of flattery become replaced with harassment, hostility and adverse actions. It is then time to prepare, formulate and file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, to be submitted ultimately to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, where the greatest flattery of an approval of one’s Federal or Postal Disability Retirement application will reveal that, indeed, nothingness comes from flattery when a person has taken for granted that which is the more important element: one’s health.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
OPM Disability Retirement, Et Cetera… 