Federal Employee Disability Retirement: The wish for erasure

Once, we used pencils because such implements are almost always accompanied by an eraser.  It was an acknowledgment of human imperfection, of the potentiality for making a mistake, and the realization that any extent of human activity should recognize the wish, the need and reality for erasure.  But that such corrections could similarly be made for lives lived, hurts fostered and damages perpetrated.  Yet, the historical requirement that has necessitated the wish for erasure has itself been erased, or significantly diminished – of a conscience instilled and allowed for maturation, where remorse, regret and readiness of heart for redemption touches upon the deeper essence of one’s soul.

Modernity has persuaded itself that guilt is but an anthropological myth created to make subservience a cauldron of psychological neediness.  Psychology is king; pharmacological stupor is the methodology for erasure, if not avoidance; and, what once we wished for in a guilt-ridden caravan of emotional remorse opening the door to forgiveness, regret and redemption, is now repressed to hide the once glorious sheen of the god in man, the elevated soul beyond the appetitive beastliness, and a lowering of that pinnacle of creation where we once walked leisurely beyond the garden of heavenly quietude, now banished from paradise into a constant flux of a state of war and cruelty.

Yet, despite attempting to destroy the wish for erasure, that goal to erase the wish for erasure has itself been an imperfect and unperfected initiation.  Somehow, the flame still remains, and like the eraser that never quite completely does the job, but allows for that faint image of writing to still remain, the wish for erasure leaves the humanity of man within grasp of redemption.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition necessitates filing a Federal Disability Retirement application with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the analogy of the pencil with the eraser is akin to the circumstances the Federal and Postal employee finds him/herself in:  Filing for Federal Disability Retirement is a means to start anew, by “erasing” the career one could not complete, but allowing for continuation in the private sector, perhaps another vocation, a second career, or a means to engage an activity for productivity in another realm.

The wish for erasure has always been a part of human desire, and preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application is the closest one may get to reclaiming that redemptive opportunity to engage a future yet untold.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Early Retirement for Disabled Federal Gov. Employees: Noted durations

Don’t you hate those “Apps” that reveal how much time you have taken to engage Activity-X or mindless-video-game-Y?

To engage in an aside for pure enjoyment’s sake is to get lost in the moment of leisure, to become engrossed and without a mind to time, problems of the world, circumstances of the present or the irrelevancy of one’s own station in life.  To read a book – perhaps of no great consequence, neither a “classic” nor a best seller of sorts; to push buttons in responding to a mindless video game; to have a silly electronic conversation with a spouse, a friend, a daughter or son aside from the seriousness of wisdom, guiding principles and life’s meaning couched in pointless meanderings without a compass of direction; and then we look down and realize that the cumulative duration expended has taken up a greater slice of our lives.

Now, that is irritating.  Yet, we cannot always and forever discipline ourselves to engage in the strict teleological essence of that which we are called to do or be.  Perhaps, in some former times when leisure was not yet an invented necessity, where finding basic necessities on a daily basis meant survival for that day or perishing in the pangs of growing hunger; or when our moments were occupied in service to a tyrant, a Lord or the King or Queen, whose very displeased nod could mean taking away one’s freedom and being banished into the dungeons of a rat-infested abyss where typhoid and other excrements of human dystopia ran rampaging through the horrors of a powerless populace; and of those times, people could with singular focus engage the toil of monotonous service without any mirth or joy but for a drunken state of euphoria here and there.

Do durations of time noted, in their aggregate, mean anything in the end?  If we have “wasted” such-and-such hours, or perhaps days and weeks that amount to a full year at the end of one’s life, does that mean that we have failed in our need to reach, to accomplish and complete the lifelong project of – what?  How many unmarked graves evidencing lives unrepentant for time wasted will be remembered for projects not completed?  We wait upon life, and life rewards by giving back silence.  We now have algorithms to show ourselves the extent of our wasted activities, and believe that we can improve ourselves by pointing out that which we stare at in wasting further time being anxious over noted durations that stand time still within the conscience of our own making.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who know the feeling of “waiting”, and have realized that noted durations mean that time has come to a standstill because of a chronic medical condition that simply will not go away, it may be time to prepare, formulate and file an effective Federal Disability Retirement application with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset.

Time does, indeed, stand still, and noted durations serve to reveal to us that time wasted is time never recovered, and remaining in a constant state of fear because the medical condition has “angered” or otherwise irritated members of that “team” you once served in your former and healthy capacity, will never get “better” by staying put.  Noted durations are for those who want to remain in a perpetual state of inactivity, and for the Federal employee or U.S. Postal worker who needs to move onward to the next stage of life, such noted durations only serve to hold us back from throwing off the shackles of conventional and normative lives that whisper not the brightness of tomorrow’s future.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: Eluding becoming a cliche

What do we fear most, in life?  Is it to become maimed; to die a horrible death; to be left homeless, without family and bankrupt?  Or, is the greater and more realistic one, that of being relegated to irrelevance?

Of what does it gain a person to attain the pinnacle of wealth, power and prosperity, if the rest of the world scoffs, laughs and rejects with a dismissive nod barely acknowledging one’s existence or appearance?  Is it not that which we strive throughout our lives – not of accomplishing projects as a positive force of constructive advancement, but of eluding becoming a cliché?  “Oh, he’s not worth the time to even…”  Is that not the most fearsome of statements to mistakenly overhear from a friend or colleague whose opinion we value and cherish?

Imagine sitting in a café on a weekend (or, in this country, it would likely be a Starbucks or some similar venue), and you are partially hidden or obscured by a pillar-post, quietly enjoying your latte or some other foreign-sounding drink that is essentially a cauldron of admixtures involving sugar and this-or-that extract; the door opens and the brief chill of the outside atmosphere is allowed in; an order is given, and the voice emitted and uttered is a familiar one.

You turn around and recognize the familiar face, and begin to stand up to say hello, but think better of it because of an unknown companion accompanying the person, whom you neither know nor have any reason for suspicion of intent or motive, but because of the pause, that moment of comfort in giving salutations has passed, and now you try and hide behind the pillar for no good reason, except that you are steeped in the embarrassment of needing to hide, not even knowing why.

They sit out of sight, just around the corner from the post that guards your presence; you consider getting up, walking towards the entrance, and replay a scene you have already rehearsed in your own mind:  “Oh, Dave!  How are you?  Didn’t see you come in!”  Then, to quickly rush out so that the query about the companion would not be necessary to address.  Instead, you sit cowering behind the protective obstruction of this magnificent pillar, the stalwart of obstacles allowing for anonymity.

The conversation courses onward; tones undulating farther, closer, with clarity, with unmitigated boldness; and a sense that there is, indeed, something secretive in the subtleties of the spoken words.  Then, the pathway turns upon the familiarity of one’s own name, and the shuddering declaration from one whom you thought you respected, felt that you knew and considered to be a close confidante:  “Oh, he’s not worth wasting the time of day upon.”  Those many years of eluding becoming a cliché, swatted away like the irritant of a gnat or unwelcomed fly.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition requires filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, isn’t the reluctance to file often propelled by that silly wish to avoid becoming that dismissed person of insignificance?

In the end, what does one care whether others consider you a cliché?  For, it is never the opinion of relevance or significance as declared by others that matter; in the end, such declarations merely reflect the inner smallness of those who fail to consider the uniqueness of those so easily dismissed.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire