Justin Timberlake reminds us of the inevitable death of all things

Once, there was a meme.

At the end of every April, clever people on Tumblr and Twitter would post images from N’Sync’s “It’s Gonna Be Me” video, marked with the caption “It’s Gonna Be May.” In fact, the lyric used the word “me,” but when sung aloud, it sounded like “May” (the name of the forthcoming month), and the tension of the dual meanings made us happy and caused us to laugh. Variations on the meme spread until eventually we grew tired of it and moved on, but the joy of the meme stayed with us as we continued our journeys.

All this was so long ago that it feels like another life, another world.

Now this:

The laws of our tribe dictate that we should be angry with Timberlake for drawing back things of the past. But instead I feel an unbearable sadness. Timberlake is himself a creature of the past now. How can we begrudge him this? Someday we, too, will belong to the past. The chariot of time is unceasing, and rolls its heavy wheels over all who step in its path. Someday it will outpace us, and we will join rage comics, doge, and success kid in the land of the dead.

Then, and only then, will it truly be May.