The transcript of a humble conversation between an immortal and a tombstone.

Abstract

The mayfly-December romance is the name for a trope where two characters of vastly different life expectancies experience romantic affection. Vampire love, gods and mortals. The trope is as old as the earliest mythologies, when the great king of Uruk fashioned his grief into an eternal monument for his departed Enkidu. It is found in China, where the aging HouYi lays out cakes for his divine beloved; in Greece, as Orpheus defies Hades himself in katabasis. Fascination arises again and again; and this humble transcript is another stone in a long tradition of love.

Without gods and monsters there is still value in this. Friends that leave to never to found again; our parents, and grandparents; our beloved pets. Eternity is made worthwhile by mortality. Mortality is made worthwhile by temporality. The transience of an experience makes it priceless, makes it agonisingly familiar, and makes it universal.