I'm not a Luddite; I'm a curmudgeon.

I spent a little less than an hour at a Best Buy last night killing time (and, as it happened, my spirit too) while my older daughter was eating out with a friend.

As I browsed -- with no interest or even opportunity to purchase anything (since I had left my wallet at home) -- I noticed the endless array of gadgets, geegaws, and -ware (both soft and hard) that will help consumers connect with the most ease to all they know and have.

And that's when it hit me.  As I looked around, I realized that I reject the basic premise that is driving technological innovation in the 21st Century: the desire to access anything and everything from anywhere.

No, we shouldn't be able to do that...much less want to.  We shouldn't want our beaches or our campsites or our eateries to be movie theaters or financial institutions or living rooms anymore than we should want someone roasting marshmallows or sitting in their pajamas in Carnegie Hall.

Whatever happened to "For everything there is a season..." or " A place for everything and everything in its place"?

Yes, I actually like having to be at home at a certain time to watch something new on television, but I also think it's better for everybody to have times when they can't do certain things...whether that's being accessible for work demands at any time of day or night or buying a car on a Sunday. Connecticut's "blue laws," whatever you might think of their religious origins, were right on the money in spirit: there should be a collective, societal downtime.