I was captivated this morning by a paragraph from “Your Inner Home . . .” by Martha Beck :

This may sound odd, but I have something I call a “song angel.” Very often when I’m especially desperate for answers I will hear snatches of a song or poem I barely remember. If I Google the lyrics they always turn out to be precisely the answer I needed.

So happens, a song has been mysteriously haunting ME for the last couple weeks . . . For Your Love, written and performed by Ed Townsend. The lyrics are tender . . .

For your love, oh, I would do anything
I would do anything, fo-o-or your love

For your kiss, oh, I would go anywhere
I would go, anywhere, fo-o-r your kiss

More foolish I grow
With each heart beat
But we all get foolish
That’s why I repeat

For your love, oh, I would do anything
I would do anything, fo-o-or your kiss

I would do anything, fo-o-or your love
Fo-o-or your love

. . . but MRH and I have been married for almost 47 years, and we ix-nayed singing to each other long ago when the parakeet dashed its poor body against the picture window.

Google informed me the song was popular in 1958 — the depressing year my family moved from the lush wetness of Oregon to Lubbock, Texas. “For Your Love” played from the Ford’s radio as we dragged our little U-Haul of worldly goods across the vast, dry-cracked Southwest.
Could be that I’m too desperate for an answer, but here we are again in threatening drought.

If Martha Beck is right about the “song angel,” then RAIN is the obvious answer. Let us dance and pray and be particularly careful while we wait for it.

As of Tuesday, the Supreme Court plans to hear a challenge to  campaign finance laws limiting how much an individual can give to political campaigns.

Do you think excessive contributions buy favor and distort the legislative process, or do you believe that giving money is everyone’s right and part of “free” speech?

See, the Girl Scouts represent society’s ever-growing inclusiveness of homosexuality. Even political conservatives like that Girl Scouts respect the values of their members, profit through cookie sales and keep their noses out of each others’ personal business. That’s inclusion, not exclusion – without “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Girl Scouts believe in “Come One, Come All.” And they practice it, too.

Last week, when it looked as if the Boy Scouts would finally change their outdated, “morally straight” views, they chickened out, putting off deciding on policy change until May at the earliest.

Do you think the Boy Scouts will ever join the 21st century?

NBC News reported this week on a 16-page Justice Department memo that revealed that certain administration officials can authorize lethal drone strikes on American citizens if those citizens are believed to have leadership roles within al-Qaeda or an associated group. There does not need to be evidence that the targeted Americans are involved in an active plot against the U.S.

What do you think? Do you feel safer knowing that the U.S. government is willing to target citizens if it believes they mean to do harm to the country?

(Your opinion is also welcome at openreporting@huffingtonpost.com )

In September, the National Rifle Association published a list of several-hundred non-profits, celebrities, companies, and news organizations who support anti-gun organizations. Here are 12 of the most frightening people and groups on that list:

• Carrie Fisher
• Henry Winkler
• Mennonite Central Committee
• Barry Manilow
• The Temptations
• Motorcycle Cruiser Magazine
• Central Conference of American Rabbis
• Mary Lou Retton
• Tara Lipinski
• Boys II Men
• Bob Barker
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference

The Daily Kos, which recently drew attention to the list, calls it “nuts.”

Why would the NRA create such a list and what plans, if any, do you think they might have for using it?

My life seems filled with change recently (yours, too?), and short media like Facebook now absorbs most ideas now that I once would have blogged about here. So I decided to try and drive this blogsite in an entirely different direction.

Speaking of change . . . Is it just me, or is this really the most interesting time ever to be alive? Something new and controversial hits the news at least daily – so often, in fact, that I haven’t talked about or settled on how I feel about the one thing before the next thing comes along and buries the first thing. And I truly believe discussion is key to figuring out much of what we think, of how we feel, and how we might solve the world’s problems – which are almost as important as our own.

I plan to select current events big and small as stimulous for discussion here in mcmerb.com, and I sincerely hope you will freely speak your own mind, or at least tell me when you just don’t give a rip about the subject. I will work hard to be fair-minded, but I’m as prejudiced as you are – so feel free to set me straight at any time..

To me, there’s nothing as exciting as heartfelt discussion and the ideas that are sparked from rubbing great minds together. I hope you feel the same. My plan is to jump right into the middle of the deep end with my next post. And if it appears I’ve gone down for the third time, please tell the lifeguard,  “Hey, Beyonce is drowning over there,” so he’ll at least attempt a rescue.

Please type your comments into the “Leave a Reply” box, and write suggestions there, too. And remember, you can try be nice, but that’s really not a requirement.

Winter will be here before we know it, but we still have fond memories of beautiful, warm weather and sunshine. Well, some of us do anyhow. This video is for the rest of us.

Two prize goodies I found in Ruidoso this week are this message center – complete with clothesline, clothespins and clock – at House of Kelham,

and an old rotary dial phone, at Yesterday Antiques.  I can use the word “communication” to tie them together, because I call all the shots here.

Just think of the cool notes you could leave for your children on that board, clipped to the clothesline or written with chalk. See, that would be you, communicating! It’s likely that the kids will ignore your attempts, but at least you tried.

Of course, telephones are for nothing but communicating. Your kids communicate with their friends 24/7, right? If you’d like to discourage the constant texting and get them to pay attention to your messages, simply confiscate their cell phones. Not as harsh as it sounds … allow them to call their friends on this sweet, old relic of the past!

But first a warning: Kids are not into low tech. Can you imagine? Local party lines would send them straight to the moon. Without cell phones  – nothing but time in their hands – they would be so frustrated that they might, possible, notice the stuff you thoughtfully left them on the message center. (What are the chances?)

All to say, these two local goodies would look very nice in your home, but I’m also thinking they’d look pretty good in mine. If you live with kids, you have a much better excuse to buy them than I do. I just live with MRH, and we mostly communicate through sign language, except in public.

This was a delicious week, with lunch at Lucy’s Mexicali Restaurant one day and Panda Garden buffet the next.  MRH (my retired husband) and I did learn never to order HOT green sauce at Lucy’s unless my purse is stuffed with Kleenex – and that the wood floor slats under the dining tables still bear as many scars as I do from my old (!) roller skating days.

In case you haven’t yet tried this Asian food buffet, absolutely everything at Panda Garden was fresh and scrumptious when we were there – and I piled my plate dangerously high. Just for you.

I made a beautiful discovery at one of my favorite local businesses this week — this gorgeous area rug at Barnett Carpets’ showroom.  I’m wondering how I could be expected to live without it. Just  picture this lovely thing beneath our kitchen table, how it defines the dining area and how cushy it feels to our bare feet. Second thought –  forget the feet if you’re the slightest bit hungry.