California State University (CSU): Open Journal Systems
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Memento Mori
Get PDFI grew up in South Central L.A. My father also lived in South Central L.A. at the peak of its notoriety in the \u2770s and \u2780s. Growing up, I was told about the horrors he witnessed and lived through, but what stood out to me was something he told me: "On every corner of every block in any given direction, at least five people died there." Walking to and from school, I passed by several "altars" dedicated to the lives lost, I also saw people trample them, destroy them both unintentionally, and intentionally which I felt like only I understood the weight of those altars, being a reminder of the days when you could die over colored shoelaces, or even looking at someone for too long. However, in my time, South Central wasn\u27t quite as lethal as it was back then, so these altars are just visions I peered into on my way home, which helped me understand the violent past that no longer exists (For the most part)
The transcript of a humble conversation between an immortal and a tombstone.
Get PDFThe 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. 
A Hwamei\u27s Song
No full textA Hwamei’s Song is a poignant tale of love, duty, and the search for peace, where the lines between reality and fantasy blur, and destiny may be more than just a story in a book