Thoughts while reading Thomas Hardy

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

... from Thomas Gray's "Elegy written in a Country Churchyard"


Thomas Friedman believes there are no more such places ... or ... at least ... they are getting fewer all the time.
Is such a day possible?