Sometimes I honestly believe I know what a dinosaur would feel like if he happened upon our 21^st Century. This is not to say I’m as old as a dinosaur; rather, times have changed considerably when it comes to learning how to spell. When I was learning, there were two very clear processes in place. My teachers hooked me on Phonics and my mother insisted I ‘…look it up in the dictionary…’  Out of sheer frustration to the latter, I would fire back my stock retort, ‘…if I knew how to spell it, I wouldn’t need to look it up in the dictionary…’ She was a mom and therefore prepared.  She would return her volley with, ‘…sound it out…’

My kids were never hooked on Phonics. I tried, but their teachers set me straight early on, ‘…we don’t use that method anymore… you’re confusing your child…’  I remember one Christmas when ‘Santa’ bought our younger daughter her first Children’s Dictionary. She was so excited to have a new storybook. She insisted I read her stories from it every night at bedtime. I challenge anyone to come up with a great bedtime story beginning with the letter X.

Words are not sounded out much anymore. Desktops are no longer cluttered with books; they have been replaced with hard drives and monitors. I truly am a huge fan of innovation and modernization, but I am a melancholy baby at heart. As a compromise, when my kids ask me how to spell something, I grin and think  ‘look it up in the dictionary… ‘ and then the words ‘Google it’ tumble from my mouth and all is right with the planet once more.

Diane Lunsford

I am a writer. I remember the first time I said those words out loud, I had to say them a few more times before the concept stuck. That was over 25 years ago and I still begin most days tasking myself to write something—anything as long as I keep paying the words forward. Humor plays an important role in my writing because a true writer needs a great sense of humor and some really thick skin. I can’t even imagine the fall out each time that proverbial thanks, but no thanks comes in the mail—okay, email nowadays if I didn't have humor. I’m one of five children, smack-dab in the middle of my siblings and had a set of parents who did a great job of raising our herd. I'm a wife with a great husband and mom with two amazing daughters. Words matter and when they’re strategically placed to command laughter due to their precise placement, what a symphony! I’m never going to stop writing and laughing. I’ll see you on the other side some day. I’ll be the one with the red balloon; standing at the end of the…wearing a…

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