Darkness is the absence of light; and whether “black” is a color, or the complete expungement or its very opposite, the aggregation and mixture of all colors into a single cauldron of rainbows, is a concept often debated, based upon philosophical paradigms of objective criteria. But darkness is not the same as color, or the lack thereof; rather, it points to the subjective capacity to perceive; and thus do we attribute the word, the concept, and the ideation not only to sight, but to moods and feelings. And of its antithesis, do we embrace a similitude: of lightness of being, having light-headedness, and of metaphors involving shining bright lights upon dark corners of moods and metabolic disturbances.
Medical conditions and situations which entrap moods and mental mindsets, are often enveloped in what can only be described as “darkness”. One may discount and serve with ironic suspicion the use of anthropomorphic metaphors and analogies to describe circumstances and moods of pervasive negations, but the fact is that the mode of communication we primarily use — of linguistic tools through words and stringing together of words — can sometimes only inadequately express the profound and overwhelming sense of one’s being. “Darkness” and escape from such a situation through the shining of light, is a concept which individuals understand when medical conditions, whether chronic pain and physical debilitation or psychiatric measures of depression, anxiety, panic attacks, etc., impact one’s life in untold ways.
Federal employees and U.S. Postal workers who suffer from medical conditions, where the medical condition prevents one from performing one or more of the essential elements of one’s job, know well the mood of darkness — of the insecurity because of one’s employment, and sense of foreboding because the end of one’s career is within sight of a shortened plateau of accomplishments. And what will the future hold? What will my family, friends, and peers think of me? I am not doing this to “game” the system, but because it is necessary to preserve what is left of me; but will others understand?
Filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or CSRS Offset, is a traumatic event in and of itself; it is, as the proverbial concept implies, a darkness in a period of one’s life; and until an approval is received from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management determining the validity and acceptance of a Federal Disability Retirement application, such darkness will only squeeze out any potentiality of a lightness of being.
For, “light” is not merely the opposite of “darkness”, nor darkness the pure expungement of light; rather, the one follows upon the other when a recognition of awareness is achieved, that the flowing stream from a hidden spring of hope can only be tasted when the trickling water finds its way down rocky paths to the tributary of life’s meaning which is unraveled for significance and unconcealed mysteries of human suffering.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Reflections of an OPM Disability Retirement Lawyer | Tagged: a federal disability attorney helping civilian government employees from all the us agencies and the usps postal service, a new day of light and hope with the lives of federal employees with newly developed medical conditions, a story of human suffering behind an opm disability application, attorney for usps employee with chronic illness, awol sickness fers, bad things can happen to good federal and postal employees with difficult medical conditions, choosing dol owcp or opm disability benefits, civil service employee awol physical or mental impairments, colorado lawyer opm medical retirement, department of defense opm medical pension plans, detroit usps postal attorney, difficult conditions for disabled postal workers, disabilities retirement usps, disabled usps employee opm medical pension plan for early out, disabled usps federal employee, disabling conditions in the federal workplace, dol owcp opm medical retirement, excessive sickness fers employee, experienced usps federal lawyer to get annuity payments health conditions in or off usps, experienced usps lawyer to get annuity payments for injury or health conditions in or off usps postal workplace, fbi fers medical retirement, fbi opm medical pension plans, fear to the darkness of an uncertain future will keep perturbing our soul as long as our bodies tell us that enough is enough, federal employee stroke fers disability retirement, federal employment and the difficult plight of living with a disabling injury or health condition, federal rehab program for disabled fers employees, fers attorney annuity payments from the opm for government employees with disabling conditions, fers attorney for opm medical retirement, fers disability annuity payment for incapacitated federal employees, FERS disability attorney, FERS disability lawyer, fers disability retirement and the satisfaction on a job well done, fers disability retirement usps postal employee, fers mental conditions attorney for ill federal employees and injured postal workers, fers opm attorney for disabled federal employees, fers opm lawyer for a postal usps employee, fers opm usps disability attorney, filing for federal medical retirement may bring its own problems just like a new shadow appears when you light a new candle -- but at the end the light overcomes darkness and fear to the unknown, finding a usps attorney specialized in opm annuity payments, fitness duty exam failed federal attorney, fitness of duty medical exam failed fers employee, going from darkness to light with medical retirement under fers or csrs, gov fers pension plan for incapacitated postal employee, government fers employee with medical condition, hawaii usps disability attorney, help for opm medical based annuity pension plans for federal government employees, help from fers usps attorney for medical disabling conditions, incapacitated federal leo officer, injured federal leo employee, injured fers federal employee, injured postal employee seeking opm medical based early out, injured postal worker attorney for mail handler who has already left the usps, law firm solely focused on its opm disability specialty, lawyer expert in getting federal retirement benefits in fers & csrs law when a disabling condition hits the federal or usps employee, lawyer for fers retirement for physical or mental limitations, legal assistance from nationally recognized attorney for usps employees or other federal employees, light at the end of the tunnel, light duty federal employee, light duty fers disabling injury or medical conditions, limited duty federal attorney, medical rehabilitation fers disability employee, neck and back pain injury usps employee, nj attorney fers medical retirement, opm medical annuity payments, opm medical retirement for fers postal & federal employees, owcp fers disability attorney, owcp medical retirement attorney, owcp.gov fers medical pension payment, rehabilitation options and legal counseling from federal attorney under fers or csrs laws, sleeping disease lawyer usps fers lawyer, the dark does not understand light nor will it prevail over light: faith does have a role in federal disability retirement just as in any other area of our lives, the plight of a federal worker with a disabling condition and sympathetic coworkers in extreme danger of extinction, understanding a system of dark forces that work against the federal & postal employee with a disabling condition, usps employee medical incapacity, usps employee with insomnia issues retirement, usps postal opm disability retirement benefits, Washington d.c. area usps postal attorney, we can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark - the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light and don't want to do anything about it, your options under fers disability rehabilitation or medical retirement | Leave a comment »