A Kvetching New Year's Resolution.

January 2021

By the time this paper reaches everyones doorstep, I may still have a hangover. I’m not talking the kind one may get from being up all night on New Years eve drinking, running around the town with friends from one party to another, or perhaps banging pots and pans out the window at midnight. No, I’m talking about a hangover from 2020. The year.

A hangover from an entire year. A headache so huge, it makes a migraine seem like a walk in the park. Sleeping it off would mean basically staying in bed for the entire 2021. (That actually sounds pretty good to me right now.)

Yes, I have a 2020 hangover that I need to treat.

One sure fire thing that almost everyone I know does waking up on New Years from a hangover, squinting into the light of a new year, a new day, is crank up the resolutions. And then put the pillow back over one’s head and go back to sleep.

Well, I decided, I’m going to try and keep my resolution.

What resolution might that be you may ask? Well, besides trying to stay healthy and alive, which is looking pretty good right now with the vaccine on it’s way and all, well…you won’t believe it when I tell you.

Wait for it…

I’m going to stop kvetching. What??!!! No way?!!! What about the column you might ask. What about your lineage, your DNA, your link to every Jewish person you may know. What kind of conversations could you possibly have with your friends?

Yes. I’m going to do my best to stop complaining. I may have to stop reading the news. I may have to stop talking politics, I may have to bite my tongue with every dirty sock my son leaves on the living room floor, I may have to figure out what action I can take to help find solutions to the problems of the world, but damn it, I’m going to try! And that starts with one less kvetch, at least once a day.

So, with this brilliant, yet somewhat controversial, Jewish New Years resolution, I thought I might start by rewriting a popular tune on New Year’s eve, one that may help me start things off on the right track and keep my resolution.

It goes something like this, join me if you wish…to the tune of Auld Lang Syne…

If this ol’ kvetch just took a break

and tried to calm her mind

She’d see the things she’s grateful for

And put aside the whine

Without a kvetch, just once a day

The world may all agree

That gratitude and love abound.

It’s a grander sight to see.

A grander sight to see my friend

A grander sight to see

2021is time to find what’s best.