Federal Disability Retirement: The Focus of Happiness

Self-focus necessarily leads to self-examination; and however one recites the variations of Socrates’ admonition, it essentially came to this: An unexamined life is not a worthy life.  And so the race to constantly examine ourselves has always been the focus of Western thought — both in the philosophical tradition, as well as in the theological tradition.  For, both Christianity and Judaism, also, require self-focus: of one’s actions, one’s sinful nature, and the need to self-correct in order to attain an entrance into heaven.

Eastern thought, generally speaking, of course (as all such discussions must embrace generalities unless we are to engage in an endless discussion of unattainable depth) engages in the opposite course of action: Whether Confucianism, which directs one to attain a level of filial piety in sacrificing for one’s family, or Zen Buddhism which calls for one to abandon the ego of self, the ultimate focus is to direct one’s self away from the very essence of self.

Thus is happiness not important or even relevant.  The obsession on one’s happiness, then, is often thought of as an unhealthy obsession more prevalent in thought because of the Western tradition of philosophy and theology.  But of both — Eastern and Western thought — health is a matter of concern quite apart from one’s happiness.  For, without health, there can be no happiness, no filial piety, and certainly not an abandonment of the self, precisely because without health, there can be no self to begin with, and thus no abandonment of the self.

For Federal Gov. employees and U.S. Postal Service workers who suffer form a medical condition which necessitates filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management under FERS, it matters not whether the focus of happiness is the basis for the need to file for Federal Employee or Postal Worker Disability Retirement benefits.  In the end, nothing matters unless one maintains a basic level of health.

Contact a FERS Disability Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and consider that the focus of happiness begins, both in Eastern and Western thought, with the maintenance of one’s health, where mind and spirit must both retain a constant level of vitality in order to live a meaningful life.

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.

 

OPM Medical Retirement Legal Representation: Inertia

It is the comma before death, the pause before becoming lifeless.  For a living entity, it is tantamount to self-destruction.  It is the point of inactivity and the silence of the moonscape where life perhaps once was, but the dust which settled has been there for quite a bit of time.

Inertia is not the natural state, but an unnatural one when life is at stake.  Observe the birds and their activities; the crocodile who lays still at the bottom of a bog, only to suddenly lunge for its prey who considered that the water’s inertia was a safe haven of seeming quiet; or the constant and perpetual motion of a squirrel who seeks the nut dug and safely hidden the previous week or month.  In all, the negation of inertia is life itself.

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, inertia constitutes the progressive decline of one’s past history of productivity and career.

Countering that inactivity — in other words, to fight against inertia — is to seek a different career, a diverging path and an alternate course of living; and filing for Federal Disability Retirement is one option to consider.

Call a Disability Retirement Lawyer who specializes in FERS Disability Retirement and consider the benefits of rebutting the progressive inertia of a medical condition.  For, inertia is the rule against life; productivity, the law of living nature.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Lawyer

 

FERS Disability Law: Shakespearean Comedy — or Tragedy?

Shakespeare has said it all; whether in one of his Tragedies or Comedies, or in the Sonnets which addresses so many topics ranging from mortality to love, time, beauty, etc. — he covers the inner psyche of man and the outer folly of our actions.  That we no longer quote from his plays or sonnets is a reflection of our own superficiality, and the failure on our part to recognize, protect and preserve the genius of a relic so relevant even today.

“Genius” is precisely that — of thoughts, principles and stories that transcend time, culture and historical context; but we live in an age where, as Aristotle would note, the “appetitive” part of our soul has been allowed to rule, whereas the intellect, reason and rational parts were meant to be the dominant force in our lives.  Comedic situations or tragic circumstances — one often melds into another.  In modernity, we often don’t know when to laugh or to cry, as the pain is great, the absurdity greater, and the two cannot always be recognized one from the other.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that 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, the Shakespearean Comedy — or Tragedy — one is witnessing, must by necessity require a conclusion to the play you have a role in.

Consult with an OPM Attorney who specializes in Federal Disability Retirement Law, and consider what role you have been playing all along, and still need to play.  For, the differences between a Shakespearean Comedy and Tragedy are often indistinguishable, but for the wisdom the Court Jester has given to the Tragic Hero, and whether or not his hubris results in failure to listen to the advice given.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill
FERS Disability Attorney

 

Medical Retirement under FERS & CSRS: The Art of Expression

The title itself plays upon multiple meanings and combinations of words otherwise with connotations and implications intended within a panorama of conceptual constructs utilized in everyday discourse.

‘Art’ itself is an expression of sorts; “Expression’ is both a form of ‘Art’ and an actualization of it; and so to refer to the ‘Art of Expression’ is not merely somewhat of a redundancy, but further, a tricky combination of two entirely separable concepts, independent and yet expressing [sic] a specific duality of meanings.  Expression, whether of the verbal sort or, as in this instance, of the written variety, is indeed a form of art.  It is so by default.  Not being a discipline of precision; not anywhere near a science of any sort; not an academic major or even a subject that can ever be fully mastered; it is, nevertheless, an art form that thrives or places an indelible blemish upon the language of one’s upbringing.

Good writing, concise discourse, proper grammatical usage and persuasive argumentation in delineating a perspective and point of view continues and remains an art form that is lost in the daily plethora of linguistic garbage.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition such that the medical condition requires the Federal or Postal employee, whether under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, to ponder preparing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, consideration must ultimately be given to the art of expression when formulating the answers to SF 3112A, Applicant’s Statement of Disability.

In preparing, formulating and putting the final edits and touches upon one’s Statement of Disability, the Art of Expression must be considered:  Does it adequately describe your medical conditions and the symptoms experienced?  Do the legal arguments persuade?  Does the medical documentation support the statements put forth?  Does the statement paint a picture of coherence within a universe of incoherence engendered by the medical condition itself?  Is the nexus sufficiently created between the medical condition and the positional duties?  Has one applied the principles of Henderson v. OPM, the Bruner Presumption, the Simpkins application, the Bracey Principles and multiple other legal underpinnings?

The Art of Expression is the capacity to pull together the vast compendium of expressive resources available, and the first step in reaching that goal is to consult with an attorney who specializes in preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: The out-of-tune band

There is something particularly annoying about a piece of music, an orchestral ensemble or a simple song that is out of synchronized perfection, or put quite simply, out of tune.

The annoyance can be traced, of course, to the origin of the discordant piece; the “band” itself, the group of musicians or the orchestra or symphony that is responsible for the unpleasant sound waves that drift through the molecular structure of the unseen world and pervades down into the refractive caverns of one’s ears, then interprets through neurons firing in order to “hear” the vibrations that are supposedly in consonance with one another such that it becomes a coherent song, piece or musical collection.

The out-of-tune band is indeed an annoyance, and we believe should be outlawed and made illegal.  Short of that, what is it about a discordant collection of individual instruments that makes it unpleasant?

Taken individually, perhaps each player of a particular instrument can play it with utmost perfection; yet, when two or more players come together, it makes for an exponentially complicated attempt at coalescence, harmonious combination and synchronized heavenliness.

Getting married – of two different people coming together and making a lifetime commitment without killing one another – is difficult enough; getting a band together and coordinating disparate sounds and vibrations and, through practice, creating music that approaches a pleasantness of sounds – now, that is what you call nigh impossible, and somewhat like marriage in the sounds of silence (sorry, but somehow one must always try and include Simon and Garfunkel’s classic; and, of course, we must ask the eternal question: What ever happened to Art Garfunkel?) that we all strive to achieve by perfection of heavenly voices.

A Federal Disability Retirement application, to be submitted to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, is somewhat like trying to put a band together, as well.  Coordinating all of the elements – the Statement of Disability; the medical evidence, making the legal arguments; delineating the entirety of the Federal Disability Retirement packet into a coherent whole such that it does not “sound” discordant, which then hints at a trough of suspicion or insincerity, which then further leads back to an “annoyance” at the originator of the Federal Disability Retirement packet, and a likely denial from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management – is an important step towards an uncertain outcome.

Like the out-of-tune band, the success of a Federal Disability Retirement application cannot be just “putting together” a few documents here and there and haphazardly writing one’s Statement of Disability; no, it must be put together so that there is coherence, coordination and coalescence in bringing together all of the evidence for such an endeavor to be deemed “a fine tune”.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

OPM Medical Retirement Legal Representation: Lives abstract and pointless

It is easy to speak about others in an abstract and pointless manner.  What is more difficult is to engage the complexity of a human being.  When we refer in such a manner, and reduce to a conceptual entity, the minimization allows one to refer to “it” as an object of derision.  Thus can one subordinate and state without feeling, “Oh, X is worthless” or “Y is a waste of time”, as if the value of an individual can be quantified like mineral ore or spectrums of inestimable qualities.

It is the cognitive process which is likely unique to the human animal, and has been variously evaluated, assessed, judged and analyzed by different philosophical schools of thought, under multiple titles like “An inquiry into human understanding” or “The puzzle of the human mind”.

Abstraction, placement of sensible objects into forms of conceptual paradigms otherwise negated by the particular; these generalizations have a duality of purpose, of utility that can be moral or evil, deliberative or of pointless venue.  Obliteration of the particular is consistent with the capacity of a nation to subjugate and murder in mass quantities, for it is by the vehicle of objectification that the subject can be ignored and shirking of humanity can be achieved.

From the ashes of the Second World War rose the stems of Existentialism, and Sartre and Camus positing the anguish of dead souls unable to experience the fullness of life.  And thus was the hero an unlikely one – of a solitary figure toiling despite the severing of that which gives impetus to life: the relationship between meaning and motivation.  For, Sisyphus was condemned to engage for eternity in the monotony of toiling to push the boulder up the incline, only to have it roll back down, then to repeat the senseless act endlessly.

It is this metaphor applied to life itself, and by which existentialism sought to bring meaning and purpose to the human condition.  That is why relegation to abstraction and subjugation to pointless conditions became the clarion call of protest for the tide of human suffering, like the Phoenix rising from the ashes of war left to devastation and human misery.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition prevents the Federal or Postal worker from performing one or more of the essential elements of the Federal or Postal positional duties, the experience of being referred to as lives abstract and pointless becomes a daily encounter; for, Federal Agencies and Postal facilities place value upon the Federal or Postal worker only so long as productivity and the advancement of the Agency’s mission continues; and thus is loyalty defined as a one-way street leading up to the Agency’s doorstep or the Postal Service’s bottom line; never does loyalty embrace the Federal or Postal employee’s medical condition.

Preparing, formulating and filing an effective Federal Disability Retirement application, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is a way to break that endless cycle of Sisyphean plunder; for, in the end, lives abstract and pointless are defined not by what “they” are doing, but what you – the unique individual – are capable to doing, and escaping the harassment and adversarial actions of the agency by obtaining a Federal Disability Retirement annuity is often the best and only choice to attain that purposive goal.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Medical Retirement from Federal Employment: What we believe

Belief is a funny animal.  So long as what one believes is never uttered, one can change them from day to day, or even from one hour to the next, without consequences attached.  Of course, you can do that, anyway, and many do in this day and age.  Once spoken, however, a belief takes on the figurine of a furnace-fired ceramic piece; to change is safe only in engaging the linguistic language-game with those who never heard of the belief, but there is a danger that such third parties could report back to the first party to whom the belief was conveyed.  Then, of course, there is the potential charge of hypocrisy.

On the other hand, there is always the disarming disavowal that it was all merely a “misunderstanding”, or perhaps that the other person didn’t get the “nuance” of the utterance; or the catch-all detachment:  “I was joking”.  Facts, of course, can alter beliefs, and that is supposedly acceptable because one has evolved through maturation of knowledge (unless, of course, you are running for political office, in which case you are reserved the allowable space to maintain the cognitive bifurcation like a schizophrenic, concurrently holding a “private belief” while concomitantly stating a “public stance” on certain sensitive issues).

Further, beliefs can become transformed via genetic, life-stage or “aha”-moments; the first because of some recognition that the wired-DNA that constitutes the “real” self has finally been revealed; the second, because there are recognized stages of living – of those prepubescent years, of middle-aged crisis and menopausal breakdowns, or in the end, just because a spouse and his or her lifetime commitment “grew apart”; and the third, by religious conversion and the “road to Damascus” experiences which allegedly justify a transcendent transformation.

In many ways, they are like opinions, though purportedly of a higher order.  Of opinions, it is often said that we all have them – of no greater consequence than the urgency to utilize the bathroom, with the latter having greater significance than the former; but of beliefs, they were once contingent upon study, reflection, coherence and rational methodology.  Somehow, in the linear progression of Darwinian evolution, the higher order of thought processes lost its way, and the meandering of human folly became the prominence of epic conundrums.

We have come to a point in human history where, what we believe is of an irrelevancy based upon our lost hope in discarding reverence.  For, the “what” must have a prefatory methodology, and that foundation was the reverence for creation.  We no longer believe “in” anything, because we no longer have any faith in anything of consequence.  Without awe, the human factor of hope, and therefore of belief, becomes a vacuity of thoughtlessness.  As all of creation is constituted by material equivalence, so our beliefs are of no greater worth than the gaseous ethereality emitted from the guy sitting on the next stool.

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from a medical condition, such that the medical condition may necessitate filing 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, the loss of belief is an important factor to recognize – for, the one saving constancy throughout is that there still remain “laws” which people, agencies and even the U.S. Postal Service must abide by.

Adherence to the law is often the only saving grace in the craziness of this world, and knowing it, applying it and arguing it in meeting the preponderance of the evidence test, is the best way to avoid that catch-all dismissive, that it is all merely “your opinion” as opposed to “my belief”, when in fact pointing out the precedential case-law and arguing the statutory basis is precisely what is needed to get beyond the irreverent assertion of that which we believe.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Federal Employee Disability Retirement: A penchant for excess

Do the historicity and context of a given time determine the individual’s proclivity for behavior otherwise deemed unnatural?  Does that concept even apply anymore, as normative constraints are denigrated, societal conventions become ignored, and new frontiers bypassing the ethos of communities are no more than mere irritants to swat away?

There has always been, of course, a penchant for excess inherent in the human essence; the British Royal Family, the French aristocracy, the Russian Czar and the modern totalitarian state where wealth and abundance allows an opening for the limitless reach of man’s appetite and predilection for excess.

Does the quiet neighbor next door — that meek and unassuming character straight out of the parallel universe of Walter Mitty’s caricature, of the bespectacled individual always referred to as “growing old with grace and a potbelly” — become a tyrant upon winning the lottery?  Is it inevitable that he files for divorce the day after his bank account becomes flush with an astronomical sum, abandons his responsibilities, denies his lineage to aunts and uncles who suddenly want to become the proverbial long-lost cousins who always loved him but were too shy to previously approach — is there an identifiable genetic code of wrap-around dimensions coiling within each of our cells waiting to embrace an inevitable penchant for excess?

And what of our behavior towards our fellow men and women — is human nature so predictable that we fear the unravelling of ourselves, and thus do we cloak our ugliness and conceal our inner motives precisely because, like the largest organ covering our bodies — the skin which provides layers of protection to make our appearance presentable and unblemished — we require constructs of artificial boundaries because we ourselves cannot abide by the liberty we are granted?

These thoughts are nothing new for the Federal employee or U.S. Postal worker who encounters man’s penchant for excess once the Federal or Postal employee shows the signs of weakness which accompany a medical condition.  Suddenly, the camaraderie and comity previously shown by coworkers becomes an unconcealed bevy of whispering conspiracies, like the silence of horrific quietude of a man drifting in a shark-infested ocean upon an overturned boat, waiting for that first bump of a forewarning to test the reaction before the initial attack.

For that Federal employee or U.S. Postal worker who suffers from a medical condition, such that the medical condition must by necessity lead to preparing, formulating and 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, the penchant for excess as revealed by actions of the Agency, coworkers and people you once thought highly of, is really nothing more than the unravelling of that which was always there, but forever hidden but for that invisible thread which holds the fabric of society together — of self-restraint, like the distant echo of a forgotten discipline, lost in the meditation of a Zen monastery.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

FERS & CSRS Medical Retirement: Of the worthwhile life

What determines value?  More importantly, who judges worth?  Is productivity the paradigmatic construct of comparative analysis?  For, in order to assess the greater advantage of X over Y, some methodology of an objective basis should be applied in devaluing one as opposed to appointing the other as the beneficial contestant of an evaluative conclusion; or can we just arbitrarily gauge one over the other based upon personal preferences?

Rawls has variously pointed out that we can be just as “reasoned” in our conclusions by applying a consistent model of application in the social justice arena — for example, we may decide to execute all people discovered on the East end of town who are left-handed with brown-eyes on every third Sunday of odd-numbered months, and exonerate those in the same part of town who are right-handed on every fifth Tuesday of every other year.  That is an arbitrary absurdity, one might declare, and one which fails to abide by the “rules of justice” as we know them.

Further, to diminish the value of one group based upon superficial concerns, while granting clemency to another based upon an equally unaccounted for basis, is to defy an objective application of fairness.  But if such rules are implemented by an authoritarian figure who possesses confidential information that an underworld bevy of dangerous criminals gather to conspire at the East end of town every third Sunday of odd-numbered months, and that all of the leaders of the group happen to be left-handed; and, further, that loyal patriots who are often mistaken for those same criminals likewise meet to fight against the known dangerous elements on every fifth Tuesday of alternate years, and who happen to be right-handed, would one’s judgment be different with this new information?

Certainly, the application of justice would be consistent, and there is a rationality of purpose behind it, now.  What changed the judgment of value?  Or, have we now altered the definition of the concept, like a metamorphosis of the linguistic caterpillar that, overnight, became a beautiful butterfly fluttering against the winds of historical change?

For Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who are considering 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, the concept of a worthwhile life often attaches itself to the level of productivity one believes one is capable of, and the capacity for which diminishment reflected in a self-image of mistaken belief is that by which it is justified.

Be wary of making decisions based upon what others have deemed to be as the paradigmatic definition of the worthwhile life; it may be that one’s own judgment is as arbitrary and devoid of substantive content as the misbelief that most of us have of the pasture being greener in the neighbor’s yard.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire

 

Medical Retirement from Federal Employment: Relevant subjects and relating back

Is it merely a ploy?  Are all subjects discussed in order to get to the point of addressing the subject of disability retirement for Federal employees and U.S. Postal Workers?  Some might wonder; yet, from the perspective of this attorney, the answer is quite simple:  Having a medical condition, and the resulting need to prepare an effective Federal Disability Retirement application to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, is reflective of life’s multi-variegated challenges on a wider cosmic scale.

We tend to compartmentalize the trials and obstructions encountered; to say of this bump in the road, “Well, if only…”; and of that fallen tree in the pathway of our direction, “I should have done X instead of Y…”  A different perspective, however, is the interconnectedness of such travails, and to view the provocations of life within the greater context of living.

Thus, the linguistic universe of metaphors, fiction, narratives and the elasticity of language comprise the insular universe of the “self”; and whether one believes in the correspondence theory of truth — pre-Bertrand Russell and the English Logical Positivism movement — matters as to how one approaches any given problem; and the encounter with the “objective” world, whether taken with a grain of salt in embracing Kantian categories of enforced structures upon an otherwise chaotic universe, or in a systematic and methodological approach as Karl Popper did in his “scientific” construct where falsifiability and the avoidance of induction delineated the essence of human comprehension and ordering of a world otherwise incommensurate with a rational perspective; these all, in their aggregate and entirety, are relevant subjects and relate back to the experiences confronted by Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers in their struggle to find answers in a world devoid of questions posed and posited.

Thus, the introduction and prefatory remarks in each of these blogs may sometimes appear to be disconnected to the final point made for the Federal employee or U.S. Postal worker, and one can certainly “skip” the storyline and see what the end-phase content addressing the issue of Federal Disability Retirement contains; but that would be to overlook the relevance of the subject begun, and the relationship between one’s position as a Federal employee or a U.S. Postal worker under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset and the wider context in relation to all subjects far, wide and throughout history past, making in the present and developing for the future; sort of like skipping the first chapters in Charles Dickens’ masterpiece, David Copperfield, as J.D. Salinger denounced via the fictional but autobiographical character, Holden Caulfield in his equally masterful work, The Catcher in the Rye, where the story of a boy’s expulsion from a college preparatory school would represent an entire generation who saw Holden as the spark of the counter-culture to come, yet never experienced the horrors of war and combat as the author did while in the 12th Infantry Regiment — thus, further fodder for relevant subjects unspoken and relating back but to a generation yet unspoiled by the totality of experiences left for silent narratives and tombs unvisited.

Sincerely,

Robert R. McGill, Esquire