Be Thankful for Complainers

Tomorrow, be thankful for complainers. Just when you thought you were the only one who had really boring dreams and always used the one stall that was out of toilet paper, a Finnish choir group has come along to express solidarity with all those suffering from these minor disturbances.

The Complaints Choir of Helsinki, singing beautifully in Finnish, has made public appearances in its Scandinavian homeland, and recently online through blogs and YouTube.

There is something to be said for a multitude of ringing voices singing their gripes and grievances about everything from the mundane ("Reference numbers are too long" and "The battery on my mobile is always going flat") to the more sublime protests ("Bullshitters get on too well in life" and "People have no time for fair trade goods, but rush to where they grow"). Sometimes it's a combination of both ("I can't escape the headlines of the tabloids").

I would love to have this choir sing their refrain of "Christmas season starts earlier every year" at a Starbucks, where they start playing carols and peddling snowflake-adorned coffee paraphernalia the day after Halloween. It drives me crazy.

Of course, I guess I could stop going to Starbucks. But then I couldn't complain. And what would be the beauty in that?

--Caroline Dobuzinskis