Doing what they do best, a recent Onion op-ed satirizes nostalgia for the “old suburbs” while simultaneously raising a very apt and difficult question for 21st century America:  when does “convenient” become “too convenient”?

Long ago, in the Time Before the Best Buy, before the interchange expanded to six lanes and brought travelers and their foreign customs from Piedmont and Parkwood and Oak Grove, in that time before, there were park-and-rides as far as the eye could see and only two traffic circles. Now there are things called Game Stops and massive sprawling Wawas that tempt and delight with warm fluorescence and the promise of snacks and convenience.

There is nothing wrong with convenience, my children—indeed, it is the reason our ancestors trekked to Pine Bluffs from a place far east of here, past Route 9 and four more exits beyond, lo so many years ago in 1987.

But how far is too far?  Will this world around us become so convenient that we neglect the very fabric of our souls and DVR How I Met Your Mother to watch “when it’s convenient” rather than together, Monday night, over microwaveable McCain Ellio’s pepperoni pizza, as we have since time immemorial?