Is it a feeling; an emotion; a state of being; or merely a fact? Or, can it be “all of the above”? Can one say, for example, “I feel lost” — but yet be in one’s home or in other familiar surroundings? Is it an emotion — like sadness or joy, but instead having the emotion of “lostness”?
It can certainly be a state of being; and there is no question that the statement, “I am lost”, can be a factual assertion where one is wandering through an unfamiliar city and you stop and say to a bystander, “Excuse, but I am new to this city and I am lost. Can you help me?”
The latter of these examples, of course, is the more uninteresting; the first or second in this series, a conundrum that makes one pause. When we experience the feeling or emotion, however, it is far from anything obscure or nebulous; we actually can, and do, experience a sensation of “being lost” — just not in a geographical or “factual” manner.
For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, it is natural to feel “lost” when confronted with the prospect of preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application with OPM (the acronym standing for The U.S. Office of Personnel Management).
Consult with a Federal Disability Retirement Attorney, who can guide you through the maze of confusion, whether “being lost” is an emotion, a feeling, a state of being — or merely a fact.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire