The kvetchers are out in force; the complainers, the grumblers, the gripers, and the groaners seem to perceive election season as the perfect opportunity to unload their negativity on the rest of us.

Ordinarily, I can take it in stride. After all, everyone has bad days, lousy weeks, and rotten seasons in their lives, times when kvetching is just par for the course. Some people are chronic kvetchers. I can usually take them in small doses. But this time of year? When we're bombarded with angry political discourse and a month's worth of breast cancer fear-mongering? I just can't take it any more.

Kvetch is derived from a Yiddish term meaning to crush or to press. How descriptive! When you're around continual kvetching, you feel pressed into the corner, forced to respond or react. You have to agree with the kvetcher, or be willing to enter into an argument. It's really a form of intimidation, isn't it?

In everything you do, stay away from complaining and arguing so that no one can speak a word of blame against you. You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of people who are crooked and stubborn. Shine out among them like beacon lights, holding out to them the Word of Life.

Phil 2:14-16 TLB

Therefore, I'm making a determination to avoid kvetching. Even kvetching about the kvetchers (as soon as this post is done)! Instead, I'll praise, or promote, or just go back to that classic rule of communication that seems lost in our current discourse: "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all."