Illumination Writers
Unearthing a Rare Find
How one ILLUMINATION author recently struck phraseology gold
About a week ago I had the occasion to read a story by Kevin Buddaeus that has stuck with me since. While the story itself was great on the whole, there was a particular phrase that jumped out at me and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
I don’t know if you have had occasion to interact with Kevin, but in the short time that the ILLUMINATION publication has been around, he has become an integral part of that community.
In fact, if Dr Mehmet Yildiz is the heart of ILLUMINATION, then Kevin is the nervous system of the group. By far the chattiest person on the writer and editor Slack channel behind-the-scenes, Kevin is non-stop in his support, engagement and promotion of other writers within the publication. Which is remarkable and fantastic.
I know that he sleeps, because the Slack channel goes quiet occasionally, but the rest of the time he is a tireless advocate for other writers and the ILLUMINATION and Medium communities.
And, if that by itself weren’t enough, Kevin’s writing stands out as exceptional as well. Kevin, like me, is relatively new to the writing-for-an-audience experience, but his writing has an amazing ability to evoke emotion for the reader.
Kevin’s writing about his personal experiences not only takes you on the story’s journey, but also invites you to come inside, sit down and feel all of the things that Kevin was feeling when the story unfolds.
The first thing I read of Kevin’s was the story of how he met, romanced, and moved halfway across the world to marry his wife in this story:
Then the other day, he wrote a great piece about how an educator made a profound positive impact on his life, here:
This is the article where one of his phrases leaped into my head and won’t leave. Kind of like that song that you can’t stop hearing. Kevin spoke of a teacher that seemed to exude the threat of physical violence by saying, “He’d look like he’d slap us any minute. I avoided him wherever I could.” Then Kevin used the term, “Corporate punishment”.
Looking at the context of the paragraph, I was pretty sure that he meant to say, “Corporal punishment”, so I put in a private note on his story saying just that. But even as I was writing the note, I began to think about what the term corporate punishment might mean. I even finished the note by saying that he should leave the term in there because I think it is a good fit, even if it isn’t a common saying.
It turns out that corporate punishment isn’t really a term that is currently in use. Google won’t auto-fill it in and re-directs you to corporal punishment instead. But I can’t help but think there is a lot of potential in the phrase.
- From a humorous perspective, it connotates everything the satire comic series Dilbert has been illustrating for us for years. All of the idiocies of working “for the man” that most of us have experienced.
- From the intrigue side of things, it seems like it might be a natural progression from, or form of retaliation for, corporate espionage.
- From the conspiracy theory angle, it could come to represent large companies that make promises (like a pension or lifetime medical insurance) that they really can’t or won’t ever make good on.
- These days, it might be the way that your job is now invading your living room and family time even more than ever while we shelter in place.
- Or maybe it is just a generic term for anyone serving a sentence in a “cubicle farm” where, a la the movie Office Space, every day is the worst day of their life.
Regardless of how this never-before-discovered term ultimately comes to be defined, the best part is that Kevin found this treasure for us to use. In a world that is more and more defined by writing content, Kevin managed to find a completely unique term that has so much potential utility.
So, for the accomplished story tellers out there like P.G. Barnett and the comedic minded like Charles Roast I am hoping that you can craft us some tales that will capitalize on Kevin’s phrase-unearthing magic.
Just for full transparency, I conspired with Kevin behind the scenes and made sure he was okay with me writing this piece. I hope it is met by all with the goodwill with which it is intended.
Now, everyone, get out there and start using “Corporate punishment” in your stories. It is the least we can do to pay tribute.
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Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.
