chapter 17: not-so-convenient truths
what is the price of convenience?
Last week, I ran out of toothpaste.
So I did what any girl in my position would do: got dressed up and went to Walgreens (hair scarf and everything!)
Just one problem. When I get to Walgreens, the toothpaste is locked away. Behind bars! Every. Single. One. And there’s no call button to be found! Nobody seemed to be working there, anyway, except for one very stressed-looking lady at the register.
So I bought a conciliatory kombucha and walk-of-shamed home to order toothpaste from Amazon, instead.
(I’m literally boycotting this Walgreens)
To be clear, I’m not above a little Amazon restock…
So why am I trying (and failing) to make dental care purchases in person?
Because convenience is RUINING me!
There are plenty of “conveniences” that are worth questioning. Like, is email really saving us time? Should we be shopping for clothes online, or going to stores to minimize returns? And, has Instacart really saved me 16 hours in the last year?
While I can’t add anything profound to the already-verbose discourse around modern convenience, I’ve recently been grappling with which conveniences are “worth it.” Meaning: they save me time and add something to my life.
Hence the toothpaste dilemma. Ordering toothpaste online saves me 5 minutes, but it also robs me of the micro-interactions of an errand and the nice little walk that I might otherwise not take. To me, it’s nicer to make a little event out of an errand than to sit at home and do the task from the couch.
It gets alienating, eschewing interactions and adventures for the sake of saving time. Instead of going to the grocery store, you stay at home. Instead of going to the office, you work from the desk in your living room. Post-pandemic, these conveniences seem normal. Necessary, even. But, barring disaster, they just seek to isolate us.
Convenience closes you off, preventing you from putting energy out into the world. And energy is so reciprocal. If you’re not putting energy out, you’ll get nothing in return.
We aren’t meant to do things in a bubble. As nice as it is to get your toothpaste delivered and order pickup from Starbucks every morning, it chips away at you. Convenience gives us a dangerous false sense of control over our lives. But you can’t control everything. And you shouldn’t try!
When you lean into convenience, you stop challenging yourself. Isolation is not the answer to a tough world.
You can lose so much in the name of convenience:
You’re distracted from a conversation because you’re checking your email
You can’t focus on your book because you’re waiting for your grocery order
You blur the lines of work and life by working from home
You spend a weekend inside because your “errands” can all be done online
Not to villainize Amazon, Uber Eats, or my home office. Convenience has its place! It just shouldn’t consume our lives. So, especially when it comes to things like toothpaste, I’m trying to add some friction and inconvenience back into my days.
After all, toiling away feels good - even if it’s “inconvenient”. Some of my favorite days include trekking across the city for a specialty grocery item, a Facebook Marketplace find, or a book from a new bookstore. It feels good to get out in the world, and it’s easiest to explore when you have a mission.
Because the way you do one thing is the way you do everything.
And if I can’t even walk 4 blocks for some toothpaste…
Well, things are not looking good.
XOXO,
Madz