The next dish.
It might be better than the one you have now.
The presence of the next dish, its possibility, corrodes our experience. “Compared to what?” keeps needling us.
The next email, the next text, the next blog post.
It arrives, unbidden, unasked for. Here it comes.
Next.
Like Lucy in the chocolate factory, we’re trained to simply focus on next.
Which is rarely as satisfying as now.