It is a view that few of us ever experience – of the deep part of the oceans where land cannot be seen even on a clear day. Most of us remain near waters adjacent to land or inland waters; and even taking a transatlantic cruise doesn’t quite count, because we remain within sight and sound of a moving community – the ship itself – no matter how much we may lean over the railing to obtain the sensory deviancy from reality.
It is that depth of a perspective that is constantly warping by a myopic view from the “human” perspective; for, we have language, first as a barrier, then thoughts and conceptual constructs that become obstacles that cannot be banished or otherwise decoupled from the moment we are born into this universe.
We can, of course, try and imagine a nakedness of reality separated from the language games and Kantian constructs of imposed categorical imperatives we walk about with, and imagination can take us quite far. But that “noumenal” reality can never be fully experienced, unless you are born and brought up by the apes like Tarzan of that jungle reality, but even he could not fully divorce his upbringing from the neurological wiring that defined and differentiated him from companions.
It is, instead, a viewpoint and perspective that is unique, rare and inconsistently insightful; those pelagic views open up the universe for us in dark times; in times of turmoil when a sudden expansiveness reveals to us something more than that which we muddle through; and when those “eureka” moments approach a human revelation that sometimes allows for an escape beyond the caverns of a Platonic shadow we become chained to, it is often the oxymoron of reality when the depths of the proverbial despairing allows for an uplifting pelagic view to occur.
For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are trying to escape from the belittling, demeaning and often cavernous despondency of a chronic medical condition that seems to be inviting constant harassment and targeted administrative sanctions that are becoming increasingly unbearable, including threats, restrictions on leave-taking, and a stranglehold of a PIP that is merely a pretext for firing, beginning the process of preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, may be the best route towards attaining that pelagic view that too often escapes us all.
No, a Federal Disability Retirement annuity is not the gold pot at the end of a rainbow; and, no, OPM Disability Retirement does not give us the liberty as Tarzan in the jungles felt; but like being on a cruise ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean, it approaches the nearest and best next thing to a pelagic view when you pause and consider the alternative – of the increasing choke-hold of the Federal agency or the Postal Service to ignore a medical condition and destroying your health for the sake of paying homage to what they want.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
OPM Disability Retirement, Et Cetera… 