FERS Disability Retirement Law: Time and a Flower

No one can replace Jim Croce’s classic, Time in a Bottle.  The lyrics are so beautifully written:

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day ’til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

It describes the conceptual complexity of so much — of time; of eternity; of love; of the imagery of a bottle adrift at sea; of a devotion to a special someone.  And of time and a flower — of the age-old adage that a flower represents a moment in time where a pause to reflect, a hesitation of a reminder, of beauty in nature which reminds us that this fast-paced world cannot abide in eternity without the momentary realization of transcendent aesthetics, of form and beauty which betrays our mortality, and of the need within every human being to be awed by an inviolable encounter with Being.

It is the simplicity of contrasts — of the complexity of time and the beauty of a flower.  When do we ever have time, anymore, to enjoy simplicity?

This is a complex world, full of strife and stresses.  The sad reality is that we have time only to smell the roses when we are forced to — as when a medical condition forces the Federal or Postal employee to slow down, to not take things for granted.

Federal Disability Retirement under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) becomes the go-to option when time no longer allows for the Federal Gov. employee to consider the beauty of a flower.

Contact a FERS Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and consider Time and a Flower or, better yet, listen to the original — Time in a Bottle, by Jim Croce.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
Lawyer exclusively representing Federal and Postal employees to secure their Federal Disability Retirement benefits under FERS from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

 

Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) Disability Retirement: Metaxu

In Plato’s Symposium, it is a Greek term meaning, “in-between”.  Above mere beastly and appetitive desires, yet not quite transcending to the angels, we are stuck between lofty thoughts and mundane chores.

What we do in life is a paradigm of anomalies reflecting who we are: the construction worker who comes home and turns on Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony; the merchant who haggles daily in money matters only to spend his weekends in museums and art exhibits; the young man or woman who loves, but dreams of a monastic life of prayer and refection.

Throughout, Man is caught in-between.  Perhaps that is how Roman Catholic theology came up with the concept of Purgatory — of that state of being in perpetual hold until the prayers of others releases you from the captivity of your own doing.

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 your Federal or Postal job, the concept of Metaxu is familiar and intimate: of that “in-between” state of being.

You can’t do your job but you keep struggling to act as if you can.  You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, let alone today or this afternoon.

Contact a retirement lawyer who specializes in OPM Disability Retirement Law and begin the process of releasing yourself from the state of Metaxu — that “in-between” state of perpetual agony.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

Federal Disability Retirement under FERS: Know Thyself

As to the familiar saying — of “knowing one’s self” — what can it possibly mean?  The saying, “Know thyself”, was inscribed on various temples in Ancient Egypt and was known to be one of the Delphic maxims.

Socrates, of course, taught a variation of the statement, contending that the “unexamined life is not worth living” — but the question which immediately comes to the fore is: At what point do we examine ourselves?  Is it a daily, continuous engagement?  Do we wait until we reach various stages of our lives before proposing such an examination?

For most of us, we don’t have the time or energy that Socrates had — of constantly stirring up trouble and pestering and peppering this person or that with questions that are meant to confound, confuse, irritate and provoke; and to examine one’s life is to constantly ask questions which we may know not the answers to.

Is it the questioning itself which is so important (one might posit that such an approach to life is precisely what Socrates himself believed)?  Were the questions posed by Socrates actually answerable, or were they just rhetorical flourishes meant to undermine the accepted, normative conclusions of the day?

To that extent — of questions without necessarily expecting any definitive answers — perhaps if Socrates were to appear in this age, he would be overjoyed with the way in which we live today: of therapy accepted as the modality of self-examination; of the explosion of “self-help” books and the payment-for-services of “life coaches” and “experts” on “living”.

Ultimately, “knowing thyself” is an endeavor that has no boundaries and cannot expect definitive answers, precisely because the “self” is an ever-expanding phenomena and “knowing” is never a static activity.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition is preventing the Federal or Postal employee from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, the maxim of “Know Thyself” is an important element in making a decision concerning Federal Disability Retirement.

You must know what your job is; what your physical or mental capabilities are; and whether you can continue on in the job that you hold.  Further, it is the maxim itself which should lead you to consult with a Federal Disability Retirement Attorney, that is, a lawyer who specializes in preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application; for, in the end, to know thyself is to gather knowledge from all sources in an effort to “know” and to clarify the boundaries of “thyself”.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement Claims: Of fortunes unattained

Here, of the story untold:

“He woke up and went into the bathroom, and there found an old man staring at him.  There was no voice that called; no utterance of a salutation so early in the morning.  The corrugated skin of this stranger was pulled back, revealing deep cuts in the rivulets of age where time had taken its toll.  His hair was unkempt; thinning and grey, with speckles of white reaching deep within the roots of timeless agony.

Where had time robbed this pathetic creature, where a lifetime was given as a gift in order to make his fortune, to find his love and to gather his friendships?

It seemed only yesterday that the toddler reached for his parents’ loving arms, and they who looked upon him with kindly affection and whispering, ‘There, there, you have a whole life ahead of you to dream your dreams and reach your goals’, and then the fading summers where life seemed but a dream where oceans divided and manhood arose from the depths of a sea that swallowed me whole.  And when the stranger in the bathroom finally spoke, it had the voice of one who stared back from a mirror that reflected the insanity of myself, old and lost, voicing a soliloquy of loneliness where once my children laughed within a wilderness of a future yet unseen.”

And so it is with many of us; time seems to creep ever so slowly during troubled waters of despair; and then, one morning, we wake up and decades have passed us by.  Did we do all that we wanted to do?  Did we find that love we yearned for?  Did we make that fortune we promised ourselves we would attain, remembering the poverty of our youth and the promises whispered in huddled caves beneath the conscience of our lonely hearts?

Of fortunes unattained, we can always justify by telling another tale: Life is too short to search only for abandoned treasures and, besides, what truly is a ‘fortune’?  Is love of lesser worth than gold in reserve, and does not friendship value greater than a penny saved?  And when compared with one’s health, is fortune amassed of any value if the former is sacrificed for the latter?

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, where the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal worker from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal job, preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be filed with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is an important step towards reaching those goals yet reconsidered.

Of fortunes unattained — perhaps so; but when one’s health is at stake, all else must become secondary, and for the disabled Federal employee or injured Postal worker who can no longer continue in a career which is only exacerbating the deterioration of one’s health, those thoughts of fortunes unattained must by necessity be temporarily set aside and replaced by the wisdom of a more valued existence.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Information: The fatigue of hiding

That’s the rub, isn’t it — that we spend so much energy trying to conceal it, that by the time the truth comes out, we don’t even care, anymore, and are often glad for the revelation and the blessing of not having to mask it any longer?  Whatever the “it” is that we attempt to conceal, hide, ignore of otherwise fail to reveal, the fatigue of hiding it, the constant commerce engaged in bartering for more time, avoiding a direct encounter or otherwise trying desperately to veil the truth, leaves us exhausted and spent.

Is it, on the other hand, like a John Le Carre novel, where the secret that everyone is attempting to protect is already known by all powers, but the constant struggle to maintain its confidentiality is more for appearance’s sake, and not because of the vital information underlying the apparent need to conceal?

The fatigue of hiding is indeed the exhausting effort being expended for what is otherwise known, or more importantly, wasted upon the known when the value of concealing is far surpassed by the toil engaged.  Medical conditions tend to do that — whether in trying to conceal it from ourselves by downplaying and minimizing the pain and loss of flexion, motion, movement or other numbness of feeling involved, or by attempting to hide it from others, such as employers, family or even friends who show some modicum of concern.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are trying desperately to cling on to their jobs in the Federal Sector or the U.S. Postal service, the fatigue of hiding can be overwhelming.  The factual state of affairs often defeats the continuing attempt to minimize and hide: the extent of LWOP having been used; FMLA already exhausted, and it isn’t even a new quarter; the piles of work being left unattended; and those furtive glances that are no longer established through suspicions of whispers and gossip, but clear rumblings of a Federal Agency that is moving to reprimand, warn, place on a PIP or propose removal based upon non-attendance or excessive use of Sick Leave; these are all clear indicators that the fatigue of hiding can no longer be further delayed.

Preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee believes that the future still holds some hope for remaining at the Federal or Postal job, is an important first step in acknowledging that the fatigue of hiding has come to a critical juncture that necessitates a step beyond hiding it — it is the time of reckoning where the effort wasted upon concealment needs now to be turned into a positive step towards securing one’s future by preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, so that the fatigue of hiding can be turned back into that productive person of greater vitality you once were, and of whom everyone else once knew.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Disability Retirement: The Glare of Another

What we do in response to outside stimuli; whether we flee, prepare to defend, aggressively pursue, or otherwise stand idle with resignation and do nothing; whither to stand in consternation or to wither without care; throughout, it is the glare of the world, whether by glint of sunlight upon objects surrounding us, or through another’s eyes which magnify the hostility abounding, which requires our tepid psyche to stir in turmoil.

The test of life is often not in others, but in ourselves.  By then, perhaps the fight is gone; maybe the slow and incremental shavings that took years to whittle away, manifest a pile of residue left behind, and forever depleting any reserve of response, or stir a final call to arms.

Life has a way of deadening the soul, but it is often the glare of another which provokes the stirrings of the remains of the day.  When driving, the sudden glare of sunlight results in a raised hand or reaching for the visor, without thought, in a protective mode; or a reactive temper arising in response to an offending pair of eyes directed with hostility and provocation; in either case, life stirs, and the vestiges of a fight thought lost and gone forever, return with a vengeance and a fury of energy and strength.  Don’t ever think that the battle is lost, lest surrender means giving in to cowardice and contemptuous cocoon’s of cornered avarice.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who daily suffer the indignities of harassment and malice at the hands of the Federal agency or the U.S. Postal Service, who have “given their all” throughout these years, decades and large sections of life and time, the need to file for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management can often be determined by the level of fight left in one’s self.  Like squinting an eye to examine the level of oil left by pulling out the long and flexible dipstick from the deep caverns of an engine hidden under the hood of a vehicle, the need to stop and examine one’s life represents a pitstop at a station of reserve.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through OPM is not a surrender of any magnitude; it is, rather, a response which shows that necessity is recognized, that there is life beyond the “mission of the agency” or the “important work” of the U.S. Postal Service, and being treated in ways demeaning does not mandatorily correlate to one’s deteriorating health.

Preparing, formulating and filing for OPM Disability Retirement benefits, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is not an indicator of one’s reserve of strength or vitality left in check, but rather the necessary response, thoughtlessly reactive or otherwise, when the glare of another hits the Federal or Postal employee without warning or prefatory contingencies, and when life and living are realized and identified as precious beyond mere voodoo of echoing motions set long ago in a time when youth beckoned beyond call of purpose.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS & CSRS Medical Retirement: Seasonal Rhythms

We are completely disconnected from the imposition of nature’s imperatives; through artificial means, we extend the light of day in the name of productivity, and prevent and shut it out for the sake of lengthier restorative sleep; we defy slumber and seasons of cocoon-like hibernation with unnatural heat, and resist the middle of the day where scorching temperatures and required siestas in other countries are ignored and scoffed at.

The rhythmic beat of breathing and hearts, like the seasons of change or vicissitudes of weather, are mere obstacles to be overcome; and whether successful or not, we forge onward in any event, ignoring the cost of defiance and neglecting the reality that once, we were sons and daughters of a primordial world, part and parcel of the natural order, but like the two figurines who left and traveled east of eden, the past we abandoned behind became a burden quickly forgotten for the price of ransoming the ransacking of the world we rejected.  But the rhythm still remains, despite our best efforts to control and command.

For the Federal employee and the U.S. Postal worker who begins to suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition prevents one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s Federal or Postal position, the disruption from the artificially-created confines of the work environment is likened to the rejection and resulting turmoil from the natural rhythm of life.

In abandoning and becoming disconnected, we have created a different rhythm of living; and when that manufactured one is interrupted, where does one return to?  Medical conditions are often considered as mere irritants to our goals and teleological make-up; when, in fact, they are precursors and warnings foreboding nature’s tap on one’s shoulder.

Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits may appear to be another artificial means of escaping, sort of like leaving the proverbial frying pan into the fire; but once we left behind the mythological state of nature, and into the social contract of a burdensome bureaucracy, the necessity in engaging the administrative process itself becomes our inevitable fate.

Federal Disability Retirement, for the Federal and Postal worker, whether under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is a benefit accessible precisely for those whose rhythmic entourage has been interrupted by the self-immolation of a disease or injury; and as rhythms go, the beat of the drummer which leads one away from the discordant band which plays upon the deterioration of one’s body, should provide the pathway towards preparing, formulating and filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, in order to head west back to the garden of eden one left behind, once upon a time.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Disability Retirement: The Soul of a Case

If you ascribe something to everything, then nothingness results.  For, to declare that all of X is contained in Y is to delete X into irrelevancy, and leave Y with nothing but X, thereby subsuming everything with nothing.  Thus, when we argue for a form of pantheism, the language of “all” tends to diminish the uniqueness of singularity, and the meanings of distinction and difference.  Fortunately, however, separate identities naturally manifest for specific entities where the exceptional outshines the mundane.

For human beings, the exceptional occurs daily precisely because there exist no mundane souls, only ones whose lives have developed a callousness to tragedy so thick that empathy has been extinguished for the price of a forgotten soul.  Thus do we have the proverbial “faceless bureaucrat” who merely stamps all incoming papers with repetitive monotony, and fails to view the content and substantive humanity beneath the surface of the linguistic mirage of daily deluge.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers formulating one’s Federal Disability Retirement application, that is the door one is attempting to unlock, isn’t it?  Every case has a unique “soul” to it; but from the viewpoint of a bureaucracy, such an argument only extinguishes the singularity of one’s own extraordinary circumstances into all others, and by doing so, that “something” becomes mere nothingness.

The key to cut through to the soul of the administrative process is by revealing the separateness of a Federal Disability Retirement case with the individuality of “this” case, in “this” instance, for “this” reason.

That is a tall order to fulfill.

For, as each Federal Disability Retirement application has a human story to tell, so the paper presentation to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, must provide a narrative with a soul, and one which is not merely one among many, but unique in its singularity of particular facts and circumstances.  In other words, the “soul” of the case must be delineated with a soulful echo of humanity.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire